The extra reserve capacity exists widely in highway bridges due to the conservative design and construction. In a case study of a highway flyover in Singapore, the flyover still possesses at least an additional 30% loading capacity after twenty years of operation. This additional capacity, which was achieved by consuming extra raw materials and energy when the bridge was built years ago, is considered another kind of “waste” since it has never been used. To make use of it, the speaker introduced the additional loading capacity into the framework of operating profit optimization. The unused loading capacity enables a higher volume of vehicles and a higher proportion of heavy vehicles, thus further leading to the increase in toll profit.
Professor Wenjun Cao received her Ph.D. in civil engineering from National University of Singapore and Bachelor’s degree from Tongji University. She is the recipient of Yongnam Medal &Prize for her excellent PhD research. Before joining HKU, she was an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology and a Ph.D. researcher at Future Cities Laboratory, Singapore-ETH Centre. Her research focuses on model-based infrastructure system diagnosis and prognosis, with the goal of improving the performance, sustainability and circularity of infrastructure systems.
Clean water and clean air are vital for public health. This project focuses on developing high-efficiency and environmentally sustainable filters for removing harmful air/water pollutants. The team has developed novel architectures and functionalities for the filters to achieve high permeance, high removal efficiency, and excellent reusability.
