Tony Ip, Tattwa Darshi Panda, Xiaoyu Jia, Yiqun Pan, D. Mishra, Matthew Yuen, Harris Sun
{"title":"A.I. model forecast of building cooling load demand for the reduction of energy consumption to work towards carbon neutrality","authors":"Tony Ip, Tattwa Darshi Panda, Xiaoyu Jia, Yiqun Pan, D. Mishra, Matthew Yuen, Harris Sun","doi":"10.33430/v30n1thie-2022-0033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33430/v30n1thie-2022-0033","url":null,"abstract":"The world needs to achieve carbon neutrality or net zero emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by 2050. Buildings are major sources of GHG emissions. Applications of the latest innovative technologies of machine learning/A.I. algorithms have opened up new opportunities. The optimal control of cooling plant systems is important to reduce energy consumption and therefore emissions. Knowing the cooling load demand in advance can help facility managers operate cooling plants much more efficiently. This paper presents a real-life application of nine A.I. models for time-series forecasting of the cooling load demand of a commercial building. LSTM neural networks, Facebook Prophet time series model, and DeepAR recurrent neural network models are found to be the most accurate with a Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) in the range of 15 to 16 with a computing time in the range of 294 to 319 seconds respectively. The LightGBM machine learning model on the other hand proves to be the fastest with a MAPE of 18.96 in just 7 seconds. Thus, different models can be deployed for different requirements. Optimising the operation of cooling systems as per the forecast cooling demand can bring enormous energy savings that are essential for achieving carbon neutrality.","PeriodicalId":35587,"journal":{"name":"Transactions Hong Kong Institution of Engineers","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69753729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The development of floating solar farms on the surface of impounding reservoirs in Hong Kong","authors":"Samuel L W Choi, S. Y. Cheng, J. Searle","doi":"10.33430/v30n2thie-2022-0065","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33430/v30n2thie-2022-0065","url":null,"abstract":"The initiative to develop Renewable Energy in Hong Kong was first addressed in the 2018 Policy Address and further elaborated in the ‘Hong Kong Climate Action Plan 2030+’. In October 2021, the Government of the HKSAR announced the new ‘Climate Action Plan 2050’ to strive to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In response, to promote the development of renewable energy, the Water Supplies Department (WSD) has undertaken studies and three pilot trials of floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems on the surfaces of Hong Kong’s reservoirs. With the successful implementation and operation of these pilot systems, the WSD is now embarking on the investigation and design of a large-scale 5-megawatt (MW) capacity floating solar farm (FSF) at Plover Cove Reservoir. Future studies will commence shortly to explore the feasibility of also implementing large-scale FSFs totalling 130 MW on other impounding reservoirs. The paper discusses some of the design issues and considerations including innovations/technology of FSFs which are specific to Hong Kong. These include the resilience of the FPV system to withstand severe typhoon conditions, environmental and water quality issues, and the proximity of nearby waterworks facilities for utilisation of the generated renewable energy.","PeriodicalId":35587,"journal":{"name":"Transactions Hong Kong Institution of Engineers","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69753281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Long-term performance of hybrid MiC buildings considering concrete creep and shrinkage","authors":"Yingqi Liu, Ho Kit Siu, Shiyu Guan, F. Au","doi":"10.33430/v30n3thie-2022-0051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33430/v30n3thie-2022-0051","url":null,"abstract":"With the completion of several pilot projects in Hong Kong, Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) is being promoted to boost the productivity and cope with the labour shortage in the local construction industry. However, the possible adverse effects of differential axial shortening due to the time-dependent behaviour arising from concrete creep and shrinkage will only become obvious after a long time. In this study, simplified numerical models are established based on typical hybrid MiC buildings in Hong Kong. Time-dependent analyses considering the creep and shrinkage of concrete are carried out. The construction schedules of the pilot MiC projects are used as a reference to model the staged construction. The results for a 20-storey hybrid MiC building indicate, owing to the concrete creep and shrinkage, noticeable stresses at the module-to-wall connections at the corners of core walls 30 years after construction. The compressive stresses at the bottom of the steel MiC modules will increase substantially over time, which could reduce the amount of material strength that can be utilised by other loads. Hence checking of long-term performance should be conducted at the design stage, particularly focusing on the connections.","PeriodicalId":35587,"journal":{"name":"Transactions Hong Kong Institution of Engineers","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69753331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A federated learning and blockchain-based data sharing framework for developing intelligent building design models","authors":"Qiqi Zhang, Zhiqian Zhang, W. Pan","doi":"10.33430/v30n3thie-2023-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33430/v30n3thie-2023-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Intelligent building design can reduce manual work and streamline the design process by automatically generating design content using artificial neural networks (ANNs). However, it is challenging to collect sufficient drawings to develop a high-performance ANN. Data owners may not be willing to share their drawings with untrusted parties due to privacy considerations. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a novel data sharing framework of confidential building design information to facilitate the development of intelligent auxiliary building design models. The data sharing framework utilises the federated learning technique and blockchain technology to encourage data sharing through fair benefits allocation based on the Shapley value. A case study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed framework. The results show that the intersection over union is improved by more than 10%. More benefits are allocated to data owners who provide datasets with higher quality and quantity. Methodologically, the paper should facilitate the effective integration of the fragmented and confidential project data to train building design models and add much value by addressing the data sharing complexity and dynamics in modern construction. Practically, the paper demonstrates a novel way to train auxiliary design models for building designers.","PeriodicalId":35587,"journal":{"name":"Transactions Hong Kong Institution of Engineers","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69753366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tools adapted to Ethical Analysis of Data Bias","authors":"W. Lee","doi":"10.33430/v29n3thie-2022-0037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33430/v29n3thie-2022-0037","url":null,"abstract":"Data Bias, a bias embedded in data during collection, storing, and use, and in the apps used by a human, is an emerging issue of data privacy exemplified by Artificial Intelligence bias (AI bias). This issue is becoming gradually an added vulnerability to data ethics, an added threat to data security, and an added burden to data protection. It has an effect to induce a reduction in data protection expenditure, and is crucial to the success of any creative endeavours in the data-driven technology-intensive era, including Engineering, exemplified by AI bias, and AI bias is bias created when biased data creeps in during design, development, and training of AI algorithms. AI indeed culminates in a phenomenon in which the populace jumps, yet a sober minority steers away from because of the pervasive cyber-threats that AI bias raises. At issue is not data bias per se, nor the multi-dimensional issues induced by human bias, which are usually complex and slippery, but a need for a method to enable a holistic view covering the technical, financial, legal, social, ethical, and ecological aspects of a given problem, action, policy, or decision. Recommendable is a method composed of the Ethical Matrix Algorithm and Hexa-dimension Metric Algorithm (Lee, forthcoming) based respectively on the Ethical Matrix and Hexa-dimension Metric (Lee, 2021).","PeriodicalId":35587,"journal":{"name":"Transactions Hong Kong Institution of Engineers","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46840916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Investigation and development of an empirical model for transmission loss of acoustic windows in alleviating road traffic noise impact","authors":"Carmen Ka-man Cheung, Jamie Chi-ting Lai","doi":"10.33430/v29n3thie-2020-0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33430/v29n3thie-2020-0009","url":null,"abstract":"An Acoustic Window is comprised of a horizontal sliding window at the inner layer, and a side-hung window, which can be pushed to open, on one side of the outer layer, and a fixed glazing on the other side. The glazing of the sliding inner window serves as a “baffle” for screening off the noise passing through the opened outer window when it is slid behind the opened outer window. This baffle-type acoustic window is proved to reduce up to 8 dB(A) road traffic noise and is gaining popularity in residential developments of Hong Kong, particularly for those located in difficult sites in close proximity to heavily trafficked roads. This paper presents the experimental results from a study looking into the acoustical transmission loss of Acoustic Windows with respect to changes in window configuration and setting of line sources. Based on the experimental results, empirical models for noise reduction of Acoustic Windows are developed and investigated to assist quick design of Acoustic Windows for planning residential developments.","PeriodicalId":35587,"journal":{"name":"Transactions Hong Kong Institution of Engineers","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45329462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Viability of renewable energy technologies under the Feed-in Tariff scheme in Hong Kong","authors":"Jackson Tsz Chun Tsui, D. Leung","doi":"10.33430/v29n3thie-2021-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33430/v29n3thie-2021-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Many countries and regions around the world have incorporated renewable energy use for the purpose of achieving resource sustainability, pollution reduction, as well as reducing the carbon footprint. Many cities around the world including Hong Kong have created Feed-in Tariff (FIT) schemes to encourage and provide incentives for renewable energy development. There is thus a need to study the feasibility of using renewable energy under the scheme. Energy generated from two prominent renewable energy technologies ‒ solar PV and wind turbines ‒ are studied for a hypothetical housing development in Hong Kong. To allow for increased knowledge of different types of solar panels and wind turbines that are available in the market, two different types of solar panels – the monocrystalline and amorphous silicon PV ‒ and two different types of wind turbines – the horizontal and vertical wind turbine ‒ are studied. The revenue that can be generated is then calculated based on a power company’s FIT scheme. The payback period required for each type of renewable energy technology development is also determined. The results show that solar panels are feasible for installation within the city, and both solar panels and wind turbines are feasible for installation on outlying islands outside the city such as Cheung Chau.","PeriodicalId":35587,"journal":{"name":"Transactions Hong Kong Institution of Engineers","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47563660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yuqing Sun, Liang Chen, Coleman K Y Chan, Antony N F Wan, Daniel C W Tsang
{"title":"Instream filtering system for the removal of suspended solids in King Yip Street Nullah, Kwun Tong","authors":"Yuqing Sun, Liang Chen, Coleman K Y Chan, Antony N F Wan, Daniel C W Tsang","doi":"10.33430/v29n3thie-2021-0031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33430/v29n3thie-2021-0031","url":null,"abstract":"The preliminary design of the project “Revitalization of Tsui Ping River” recommended a few water quality improvement measures aiming to enhance the aesthetic appearance and environmental conditions of the existing King Yip Street Nullah in Kwun Tong, including the use of a cost-effective instream filtering system to remove suspended solids (SS) in dry weather flows. However, the effectiveness as well as operational and maintenance experience of instream filtering systems in Hong Kong is not well established. Thus, we conducted a site trial to ascertain its effectiveness before full-scale implementation. The results showed that the sand trap screened a lot of sandy materials during the site trial period, especially during rainfall events. The instream filtering system with a gravel size of 80−120 mm effectively removed SS and total organic carbon from the water. We recommend that for the instream filtering system to be implemented in other nullahs in Hong Kong, larger dimensions (length of 4−9 m) with possible flow control (0.3−1.5 m3/h) measures could be considered when the site conditions (water depth of 1.1−1.5 m and water turbidity level below 500 NTU) allow. Overall, this study provided indispensable guidance to formulate the future design of filter sizing criteria based on targeted rainfall events and specific hydrological objectives.","PeriodicalId":35587,"journal":{"name":"Transactions Hong Kong Institution of Engineers","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43099577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Seasonal variation of heavy metal contents in road dust from residential, industrial and rural areas of Hong Kong","authors":"K. Ngai, Ming Wai Mak, Hon Sang Ko, K. Pun","doi":"10.33430/v29n3thie-2020-0049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33430/v29n3thie-2020-0049","url":null,"abstract":"Heavy metal contents in road dust have been an important indicator of heavy metal pollution arising from traffic-related activities. In this study, 108 road dust samples were collected from four locations of Hong Kong, namely Kwai Hing (industrial area), Sau Mau Ping (residential area), Sai Kung and Tai Lam (rural area), over a one-year period and analysed for zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), and arsenic (As). The geo-accumulation indices (Igeo) and contamination factors indicated zinc, copper, chromium, to a lesser extent, nickel, and cadmium pollution of road dust in industrial and residential areas. The potential ecological risks of Cu were found to be particularly high in both areas. Residential and industrial areas are prone to considerable and very high risks, respectively, based on the risk indices (RI). The sources of heavy metals may vary slightly between the areas based on Pearson's correlation analysis. It was found that the metal contents in the road dust samples vary differently between the dry and wet seasons. The concentrations of Zn were higher in the dry season while those of Cu, Cr and Ni were generally higher in the wet season.","PeriodicalId":35587,"journal":{"name":"Transactions Hong Kong Institution of Engineers","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45035568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Performance enhancement of PRNU-based source identification for smart video surveillance","authors":"Sai-Chung Law, N. Law","doi":"10.33430/v29n3thie-2022-0035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33430/v29n3thie-2022-0035","url":null,"abstract":"This paper introduces a current signal-based source verification (SSV) system for images in video surveillance networks including the cloud. Using a signal, the well-known photo-response non-uniformity (PRNU) can be used, which is unique and intrinsic in every digital image taken by a source camera, like fingerprints. The SSV system using PRNU has proved before to be useful for reliable video source identification in both network- and cloud-based video surveillance. However, in the era of smart living, security video systems have become part of the IoT devices which typically have limited resources such as low computation, power, storage and memory. To address these problems in the IoT applications, the effects of I-frames only and infra-red night scenes are studied as well as two proposed approaches for the SSV system. Then a hybrid version of the SSV scheme is further suggested, in combination with the best approach using averaged noise residues (for reduced false positive rate), and a recent technique using spatial domain averaged frames (for reduced computational complexity). The\u0000enhanced performance of the improved SSV system for smart video surveillance has been verified through tests.","PeriodicalId":35587,"journal":{"name":"Transactions Hong Kong Institution of Engineers","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42229268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}