Browsing by Author "Zhang, J"

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item: Conference-Full-text
Developing sustainable relationships through public private people partnership (4p) projects
(2012-06) Zou, W; Zhang, J; Kumaraswamy, M; Senaratne, S; Sandanayake, YG
Public Private Partnership (PPP) are sometimes used to procure public infrastructure, if deemed useful in mobilising private finance and expertise for generating innovations and enhanced ‘value’. However, when delivering desired ‘value’ to specific end-users, we should not neglect ‘overall value’ for the sustainable development of the parent community/society. To address such holistic issues in suitable broader-based projects, wider-ranging ‘Public Private People Partnership’ (4P) arrangements are proposed to invite and integrate contributions from societal stakeholders through relevant bodies, e.g. social enterprises, NGOs, academia and professional institutions. Selecting and integrating such stakeholders in a properly structured 4P procurement and operational framework can help formulate more widely acceptable and sustainable designs and mobilise more resources for procurement, construction, maintenance and operation of built assets. This will also help to address grass roots aspirations and concerns earlier, rather than try to resolve conflicts later. However, a major barrier to involving more stakeholders in already complex projects arises in managing their inputs, and relationships, while optimising outputs. Based on literature review and structured interviews, this paper presents pros and cons of using 4P in selected scenarios such as post-disaster reconstruction. Initial findings confirm that a 4P approach requires superior relationship management. This paper also draws on another study that highlighted the often neglected importance of relationship management in ‘traditional’ PPP projects. Combining these findings, a case is made for improving relationship management by mobilising the additional P (‘people’) to appropriate extents in selected PPP projects, so as to identify, prioritise and harmonise diverse stakeholder objectives and target optimal ‘overall value’ with sustainable relationships aimed at common goals.
item: Conference-Full-text
Ice-breaking and skid resistance performance evaluation of asphalt pavement groove-filled with elastomer
(Springer, 2021) Yao, T; Han, S; Men, C; Zhang, J; Luo, J; Li, Y; Pasindu, HR; Bandara, S; Mampearachchi, WK; Fwa, TF
Icing on roads in cold regions seriously affects vehicle driving safety. Therefore, this study aims to propose a pavement surface treatment technology with groove-filled elastomer. Through theoretical analysis, the ice-breaking mechanism of groove-filled elastomer asphalt pavement was clarified. Then, through the indoor ice-breaking test, the ice-breaking performance of the asphalt pavement groove-filled with elastomericmaterials under three filling forms of above, level and lower than the asphalt pavement surface and different ice thickness were studied. The results show that the filling form where the elastomer material is flush with the asphalt pavement has the best ice-breaking effect, and the groove-filled elastomer asphalt pavement still has an excellent ice-breaking effect when the thickness of the ice layer is less than 2 mm. Finally, through BPN and friction coefficient test, the skid resistance performance of groove-filled elastomer asphalt pavement under dry, wet and icing conditions is verified. Compared with AC-13 asphalt mixture, the skid resistance of groove-filled asphalt pavement is improved by 4.5, 10.8 and 24.6%.
item: Article-Full-text
Thermal and environmental impact analysis of rice husk ash-based mortar as insulating wall plaster
(Elsevier, 2021) Selvaranjan, K; Navaratnam, S; Gamage, DCPH; Thamboo, J; Siddique, R; Zhang, J; Zhang, G
The energy used to maintain the thermal comfort of buildings significantly contributes to the GHG emissions and global warming. In this study, a sustainable and cost-effective rice husk ash (RHA)-based mortar for wall plastering has been developed to provide better thermal insulation, reduce the operational energy and enhance the thermal comfort. Consequently, RHA was partially replaced with the sand in the conventional mortar to produce the RHA-based plaster. Initially, compressive strengths and thermal conductivities of the selected mortar mixes were assessed. The results highlight that the RHA can be replaced up to 30% instead of sand in mortar to produce the thermally enhanced wall plaster. Further, two identical prototype model houses were constructed with RHA-based (i.e. 30% of RHA) and conventional plasters to evaluate their heat transfer, heat flux, and the characteristics of internal and external wall surface temperatures in open weather conditions. It was noted that the average peak heat flux reduction formed by the RHA-based plaster was 10%. The average daily heat transfer reduction across the wall with RHA-based plaster was about 26%. Results also show that RHA-based plaster can reduce the energy that required to maintain thermal comfort by about 9% than the conventional plaster. Moreover, the environmental impact analysis was also conducted to assess the sustainability performance of RHA-based mortars. The environmental impact assessment revealed that the RHA-based plaster has less environmental impact than the conventional mortar. Furthermore, the CO2 emission generated by the production of RHA-based mortar is about 14% less than the conventional plaster.