Pablo Pascual-Muñoz

Influence of pervious pavement systems on heat dissipation from a horizontal geothermal system

Due to increasing energy demands, leading countries have focused on finding renewable energy sources. Geothermal Energy is a renewable, efficient, reliable and proven energy source for heating and cooling buildings. Among all the geothermal heat exchanger systems, geothermal paving systems couple the benefits of a permeable pavement system and a horizontal heat exchanger. This paper analyses the influence of different paving surfaces and sub-bases on the thermal performance of pavement section using a newly developed laboratory test. According to the temperature profiles observed, porous asphalt surface and limestone gravel sub-base combine to produce a system which insulates the most under ambient air conditions, while interlocked concrete block pavement surface and plastic cell sub-base dissipated the most heat.

Numerical simulation of bus aerodynamics on several classes of bridge decks

ABSTRACT This paper is focused on improving traffic safety on bridges under crosswind conditions, as adverse wind conditions can increase the risk of traffic accidents. Two ways to improve traffic safety are investigated: improving vehicle stability by means of wind fences installed on the bridge deck and by modifying the design parameters of the infrastructure. Specifically, this study examines the influence of different parameters related to the bridge deck configuration on the aerodynamic coefficients acting on a bus model under crosswind conditions. The aerodynamic coefficients related to side force, lift force and rollover moment are obtained for three classes of bridge deck (box, girder and board) by numerical simulation. FLUENT was used to solve the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations along with the shear stress transport (SST) k–ω turbulence model. Two crash barriers located on the box bridge deck were replaced with an articulating wind fence model and the effect of the angle between the wind fence and the horizontal plane on the bus aerodynamic was investigated. The risk of rollover accidents was found to be slightly influenced by the bridge deck type for a yaw angle range between 75° and 120°. In order to study the effect of the yaw angle on the aerodynamic coefficients acting on bus, both the bus model and the bridge model were simultaneously rotated. The minimum value of the rollover coefficient was obtained for an angle of 60° between the wind fence slope and the horizontal plane. The only geometry parameter of the box bridge deck which significantly affects bus aerodynamics is the box height. The present research highlights the usefulness of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for improving traffic safety, studying the performance of the articulating wind fence, and determining which geometry parameters of the box deck have a significant influence on the bus stability.

Energy harvesting from vehicular traffic over speed bumps: a review

Energy used by vehicles to slow down in areas of limited speed is wasted. A traffic energy-harvesting device (TEHD) is capable of harvesting vehicle energy when passing over a speed bump. This pape...

Research Paper3D numerical modelling and experimental validation of an asphalt solar collector

This project, with reference BIA2013-40917-R, is financed by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and funded by the State General Budget and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).

3D numerical modelling and experimental validation of an asphalt solar collector

This project, with reference BIA2013-40917-R, is financed by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and funded by the State General Budget and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).