Cracks originate at defects of numerous kinds spread in the material. The fatigue life is – besides many other factors – governed by the large defects in the highly stressed area. The statistical ...size effect may be taken into account by identifying the highly stressed surface of a structure. The geometrical size effect is strictly interpreted from the viewpoint of fracture mechanics. Endurance limit stresses are correlated with thresholds of fatigue crack growth. For short cracks the increase of the threshold with crack length may be steeper than the increase of the applied stress intensity factor. In terms of applied local stresses this phenomenon of non propagating cracks can be expressed as a support factor. Additionally, some metals may show stable cyclic plastic deformation at the endurance limit. If proofs of the fatigue strength are based on the Theory of Elasticity a hypothetical stress state in accordance with the theory must be found which corresponds with the real stresses and strains at the critical locations of components. Neuber’s formula is used to supply this correlation expressed as a macro support factor. The paper describes a multiplicative ansatz for considering these combined effects in a design environment. A validation of the system of factors against experimental evidence is provided.
Aims/hypothesis
The aim of this study was to investigate whether air pollution from traffic at a residence is associated with mortality related to type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
Methods
We followed up ...52,061 participants in the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort for diabetes-related mortality in the nationwide Register of Causes of Death, from baseline in 1993–1997 up to the end of 2009, and traced their residential addresses since 1971 in the Central Population Registry. We used dispersion-modelled concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO
2
) since 1971 and amount of traffic at the baseline residence as indicators of traffic-related air pollution and used Cox regression models to estimate mortality-rate ratios (MRRs) with adjustment for potential confounders.
Results
Mean levels of NO
2
at the residence since 1971 were significantly associated with mortality from diabetes. Exposure above 19.4 μg/m
3
(upper quartile) was associated with a MRR of 2.15 (95% CI 1.21, 3.83) when compared with below 13.6 μg/m
3
(lower quartile), corresponding to an MRR of 1.31 (95% CI 0.98, 1.76) per 10 μg/m
3
NO
2
after adjustment for potential confounders.
Conclusions/interpretation
This study suggests that traffic-related air pollution is associated with mortality from diabetes. If confirmed, reduction in population exposure to traffic-related air pollution could be an additional strategy against the global public health burden of diabetes.
Ultrafine particles (UFP; particulate matter <0.1 μm diameter) emitted from motorized traffic may be highly detrimental to health. Active mobility (walking, bicycling) is increasingly encouraged as a ...way to reduce traffic congestion and increase physical activity levels. However, it has raised concerns of increased exposure to UFP, due to increased breathing rates in traffic microenvironments, immediately close to their source. The recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) societal closures reduced commuting needs, allowing a natural experiment to estimate contributions from motorized traffic to UFP exposure while walking or bicycling.
From late-March to mid-July 2020, UFP was repeatedly measured while walking or bicycling, capturing local COVID-19 closure (‘Phase 0’) and subsequent phased re-opening (‘Phase 1', '2', '2.1' & '3’). A DiSCmini continuously measured particle number concentration (PNC) in the walker/bicyclist's breathing zone. PNC while walking or bicycling was compared across phased re-openings, and the effect of ambient temperature, wind speed and direction was determined using regression models.
Approximately 40 repeated 20-minute walking and bicycling laps were made over 4 months during societal re-opening phases related to the COVID-19 pandemic (late-March to mid-July 2020) in Copenhagen. Highest median PNC exposure of both walking (13,170 pt/cm3, standard deviation (SD): 3560 pt/cm3) and bicycling (21,477 pt/cm3, SD: 8964) was seen during societal closures (Phase 0) and decreased to 5367 pt/cm3 (SD: 2949) and 8714 pt/cm3 (SD: 4309) in Phase 3 of re-opening. These reductions in PNC were mainly explained by meteorological conditions, with most of the deviation explained by wind speed (14–22%) and temperature (10–13%). Highest PNC was observed along major roads and intersections.
In conclusion, we observed decreases in UFP exposure while walking and bicycling during societal re-opening phases related to the COVID-19 pandemic, due largely to meteorological factors (e.g., wind speed and temperature) and seasonal variations in UFP levels.
Display omitted
•Active mobility close to motorized traffic exposes people to high levels of UFP.•COVID-19 closures reduced the need to commute and therefore local traffic counts.•We measured UFP, walking and bicycling, during COVID-19 closures and re-opening.•PNC levels decreased continuously during phased re-opening.•PNC decreases mainly driven by meteorological factors (wind speed, temperature).
We examine here the hypothesis that during flowering, the grass pollen concentrations at a specific site reflect the distribution of grass pollen sources within a few kilometres of this site. We ...perform this analysis on data from a measurement campaign in the city of Aarhus (Denmark) using three pollen traps and by comparing these observations with a novel inventory of grass pollen sources. The source inventory is based on a new methodology developed for urban-scale grass pollen sources. The new methodology is believed to be generally applicable for the European area, as it relies on commonly available remote sensing data combined with management information for local grass areas. The inventory has identified a number of grass pollen source areas present within the city domain. The comparison of the measured pollen concentrations with the inventory shows that the atmospheric concentrations of grass pollen in the urban zone reflect the source areas identified in the inventory, and that the pollen sources that are found to affect the pollen levels are located near or within the city domain. The results also show that during days with peak levels of pollen concentrations there is no correlation between the three urban traps and an operational trap located just 60 km away. This finding suggests that during intense flowering, the grass pollen concentration mirrors the local source distribution and is thus a local-scale phenomenon. Model simulations aimed at assessing population exposure to pollen levels are therefore recommended to take into account both local sources and local atmospheric transport, and not to rely only on describing regional to long-range transport of pollen. The derived pollen source inventory can be entered into local-scale atmospheric transport models in combination with other components that simulate pollen release in order to calculate urban-scale variations in the grass pollen load. The gridded inventory with a resolution of 14 m is therefore made available as supplementary material to this paper, and the verifying grass pollen observations are additionally available in tabular form.
Nonproportionality in fatigue is a matter of loading sequences acting on structures. In such loading cases, a life assessment‐based search of the initiation site is required. This means that for a ...variety of potential sites, their stress‐strain sequences must be determined and the corresponding fatigue lives have to be calculated. For the determination of local stress‐strain sequences, a superposition of the action of loads at all times for all potential sites must be performed. The superposition has not only to be performed at a particular time of a load reversal but also for a sufficiently large number of intermediate points in time. For the assessment of crack initiation under local nonproportional stress‐strain sequences, a multiaxial fatigue damage hypothesis must be specified. Due to the superiority with respect to accuracy, critical plane approaches are the favourite ones when dealing with nonproportional fatigue of ductile metals. For describing fatigue crack growth, the time sequences for the stress intensity factors corresponding to the 3 opening modes must be obtained by superposition. A mixed‐mode hypothesis must be applied to predict both the direction and the increment of crack growth at each crack front point. A first prediction trial should be based on an appropriate extension of the maximum tangential stress hypothesis. An application of a variant of the maximum shear stress hypothesis might be an amendment. Especially in the case of crack turning, the consideration of crack face contact is mandatory.
Deriving a parameterisation of ammonia emissions for use in chemistry-transport models (CTMs) is a complex problem as the emission varies locally as a result of local climate and local agricultural ...management. In current CTMs such factors are generally not taken into account. This paper demonstrates how local climate and local management can be accounted for in CTMs by applying a modular approach for deriving data as input to a dynamic ammonia emission model for Europe. Default data are obtained from information in the RAINS system, and it is demonstrated how this dynamic emission model based on these input data improves the NH3 calculations in a CTM model when the results are compared with calculations obtained by traditional methods in emission handling. It is also shown how input data can be modified over a specific target region resulting in even further improvement in performance over this domain. The model code and the obtained default values for the modelling experiments are available as supplementary information to this article for use by the modelling community on similar terms as the EMEP CTM model: the GPL licencse v3.
A short crack model originally proposed for multiaxial constant amplitude loading is extended and applied to multiaxial variable amplitude loading. Load sequences have a significant influence on ...variable amplitude life; they are taken into account using algorithms originally proposed only for uniaxial loading. The estimated fatigue lives of unnotched tubular specimens and notched shafts under different in- and out-of-phase multiaxial constant and variable amplitude load histories are compared with the experimental results. The comparison reveals that the proposed short crack approach enables sufficiently accurate estimation. Moreover, the estimated critical planes, i.e., the planes of maximum crack growth rate or minimum life, are in good agreement with the experimental observations.
Reactive nitrogen (Nr) compounds have different fates in the atmosphere due to differences in the governing processes of physical transport, deposition and chemical transformation. Nr compounds ...addressed here include reduced nitrogen (NHx: ammonia (NH3) and its reaction product ammonium (NH4+)), oxidized nitrogen (NOy: nitrogen monoxide (NO) + nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and their reaction products) as well as organic nitrogen compounds (organic N). Pollution abatement strategies need to take into account the differences in the governing processes of these compounds when assessing their impact on ecosystem services, biodiversity, human health and climate. NOx (NO + NO2) emitted from traffic affects human health in urban areas where the presence of buildings increases the residence time in streets. In urban areas this leads to enhanced exposure of the population to NOx concentrations. NOx emissions generally have little impact on nearby ecosystems because of the small dry deposition rates of NOx. These compounds need to be converted into nitric acid (HNO3) before removal through deposition is efficient. HNO3 sticks quickly to any surface and is thereby either dry deposited or incorporated into aerosols as nitrate (NO3−). In contrast to NOx compounds, NH3 has potentially high impacts on ecosystems near the main agricultural sources of NH3 because of its large ground-level concentrations along with large dry deposition rates. Aerosol phase NH4+ and NO3− contribute significantly to background PM2.5 and PM10 (mass of aerosols with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5 and 10 μm, respectively) with an impact on radiation balance as well as potentially on human health. Little is known quantitatively and qualitatively about organic N in the atmosphere, other than that it contributes a significant fraction of wet-deposited N, and is present in both gaseous and particulate forms. Further studies are needed to characterise the sources, air chemistry and removal rates of organic N emissions.
A local-scale Gaussian dispersion-deposition model (OML-DEP) has been coupled to a regional chemistry-transport model (DEHM with a resolution of approximately 6 km × 6 km over Denmark) in the Danish ...Ammonia Modelling System, DAMOS. Thereby, it has been possible to model the distribution of ammonia concentrations and depositions on a spatial resolution down to 400 m × 400 m for selected areas in Denmark. DAMOS has been validated against measured concentrations from the dense measuring network covering Denmark. Here measured data from 21 sites are included and the validation period covers 2–5 years within the period 2005–2009. A standard time series analysis (using statistic parameters like correlation and bias) shows that the coupled model system captures the measured time series better than the regional- scale model alone. However, our study also shows that about 50% of the modelled concentration level at a given location originates from non-local emission sources. The local-scale model covers a domain of 16 km × 16 km, and of the locally released ammonia (NH3) within this domain, our simulations at five sites show that 14–27% of the locally (within 16 km × 16 km) emitted NH3 also deposits locally. These results underline the importance of including both high-resolution local-scale modelling of NH3 as well as the regional-scale component described by the regional model. The DAMOS system can be used as a tool in environmental management in relation to assessments of total nitrogen load of sensitive nature areas in intense agricultural regions. However, high spatio-temporal resolution in input parameters like NH3 emissions and land-use data is required.
In this study, the diurnal atmospheric grass pollen concentration profile within the Danish city of Aarhus was shown to change in a systematic manner as the pollen season progressed. Although diurnal ...grass pollen profiles can differ greatly from day-to-day, it is common practice to establish the time of day when peak concentrations are most likely to occur using seasonally averaged diurnal profiles. Atmospheric pollen loads are highly dependent upon emissions, and different species of grass are known to flower and emit pollen at different times of the day and during different periods of the pollen season. Pollen concentrations are also influenced by meteorological factors - directly through those parameters that govern pollen dispersion and transport, and indirectly through the weather-driven flowering process. We found that three different profiles dominated the grass pollen season in Aarhus - a twin peak profile during the early season, a single evening profile during the middle of the season, and a single midday peak during the late season. Whilst this variation could not be explained by meteorological factors, no inconsistencies were found with the theory that it was driven by a succession of different grass species with different diurnal flowering patterns dominating atmospheric pollen loads as the season progressed. The potential for exposure was found to be significantly greater during the late-season period than during either the early- or mid-season periods.
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