Wood is one of the most important construction materials in Europe and its use in building applications has increased in the recent decades. To enable even more extensive and reliable use of wood, this article aimed to determine the effect of thermal modification on mechanical properties of fir wood (lat. Abies sp.), linden wood (lat. Tilia sp.), and beech wood (lat. Fagus sp.). The thermal modification was conducted in a laboratory oven at five different temperatures of 170, 180, 195, 210, 220 °C and processed with a different maximum duration of the process of 78, 120, 180, 240, 276 minutes. Mechanical properties of treated wood have shown statistically insignificant fluctuations at lower temperatures compared to control samples. On the other hand, raising the temperature to 210 °C significantly affected the strength of all the species. The results revealed that thermal modification at high temperatures and longer exposure causes a decrease in the maximum force of the three wood species.

Due to their good structural properties, stainless Cr-Ni steels have a very wide application in various branches of technology. During the welding of stainless Cr-Ni steels with high-alloy coated electrodes, welding fumes of complex chemical composition are generated, which is very harmful for welders and the environment. For the purposes of this experiment, two variants of one rutile Cr-Ni commercial electrode, designated E 23 12 2 LR 12, were designed and fabricated. Higher production of welding fume particles also means greater danger to humans and the environment. In order to show the influence of the base material on the production of welding fume particles, an experiment for measuring the production of welding fume particles was performed in which two different steels were used as the base material, general structural steel S235JRG2 and stainless steel X6CrNiTi18.10.

Ergonomic workplaces lead to fewer work-related musculoskeletal disorders and thus fewer sick days. There are various guidelines to help avoid harmful situations. However, these recommendations are often rather crude and often neglect the complex interaction of biomechanical loading and psychological stress. This study investigates whether machine learning algorithms can be used to predict mechanical and stress-related muscle activity for a standardized motion. For this purpose, experimental data were collected for trunk movement with and without additional psychological stress. Two different algorithms (XGBoost and TensorFlow) were used to model the experimental data. XGBoost in particular predicted the results very well. By combining it with musculoskeletal models, the method shown here can be used for workplace analysis but also for the development of real-time feedback systems in real workplace environments.

An approach for computing the heat flux required for warming up of frozen wooden prisms in the regimes for their autoclave steaming at limited heat power of the steam generator, depending on the dimensions of the prisms cross section, wood moisture content, and loading level of the autoclave has been suggested. The approach is based on the use of two personal mathematical models: 2D non-linear model of the temperature distribution in subjected to steaming frozen wooden prisms and model of the non-stationary heat balance of autoclaves for steaming wood materials. For numerical solving of the models and practical application of the suggested approach, a software program was prepared in the calculation environment of Visual FORTRAN Professional developed by Microsoft. Using this program computation and research of the non-stationary change of the processing medium temperature and heat fluxes in an autoclave with a diameter of 2.4 m, length of 9.0 m and loading level of 50% at a limited heat power of the steam generator, equal to 500 kW during the initial part of the steaming in it of frozen beech prisms with different moisture content have been carried out. The suggested approach can be used for computing and model based automatic realization of energy efficient optimized regimes for autoclave steaming of different wood materials.

This paper presents an efficient method to improve the comb aliasing rejection in a comb decimation filter without increasing its passband droop. This problem is important since aliasing and comb passband droop may deteriorate the decimated signal. We propose here to apply sharpening of the modified comb in the second stage of a two-stage comb structure. The modified comb is obtained by decreasing the middle coefficient of the impulse response of the cascade of two combs by 1/2. The sharpening polynomial with the first order tangencies is used here. As a result, the comb folding bands, where the aliasing occur, become wider and with an increased attenuation in comparison with the original comb filter. However, this improvement in the folding bands did not result in an increased passband droop. The compensator from literature is used to further decrease passband droop. The method is illustrated with examples and compared with the original comb and the methods proposed in literature for increasing aliasing rejection.

The axial piston pump for aircraft hydraulics systems and other high pressure hydraulic system applications is presented. This paper discusses the pump’s pressure pulsation and the fundamental frequency. Pressure pulsation associated with single piston failure is explained in relation to its fundamental frequency. A predictive approach in maintenance and pump sub system health monitoring is proposed, using numerical modelling and applicable software.

Educational institutions are facilities where each person spends many years of their life. Desks used in these institutions are designed with specific features of shape, material and size. Long-term use of desks in educational institutions may be the cause of damage to the health of users if they are not carefully designed and dimensioned. In compliance with the prescribed rules and dimensions in the design of desks it is of great importance for proper development of the users that are in the stage of growth and development when using this type of desk. In this paper, the functional dimensions of real samples of desks taken from primary schools in the Municipality of Aerodrom – Skopje will be measured. The testing samples of desks will be designated to the group that they belong to according to the EN 1729-1:2006 standard, and all requested dimensions according to the standard will be measured. The purpose of this work is to show the real condition of desks in primary schools and whether the desks are with the requested dimensions of the EN 1729-1:2006 standard.

In heat pump cycles, heat is supplied to the working fluid from a certain group of low-temperature bodies and transferred to a group of high-temperature bodies, i.e. the heat source is at a lower temperature and the heat sink at a higher temperature. Using the method of circular processes, in synergy with the possibility of mutual conversion of thermal and mechanical interactions, the process of heat transfer from a lower temperature level to a higher temperature level is enabled. Mechanical work, which, as compensation, should be given by the environment to the system (working substance), is a difference between heat removed and heat supplied. The efficiency of the heat pump mostly depends on the temperature interval at which the process takes place, however, the efficiency of the heat pump is also affected by the thermodynamic parameters of its parts: compressor, condenser, throttle valve, and evaporator. In this paper, the influence of condensing temperature and compressor efficiency on the efficiency of the system as a whole is examined. The calculation was performed for two working substances, R123 and R134a, using the EES software package (Engineering Equation Solver) which is used for numerical modeling of thermodynamic systems, process optimization, and making process diagrams.

Analyzing the period of exploitation of welded steel structures it can be concluded that they are predominantly exposed to the action of variable load. The welded joint as the largest stress concentrator due to the heterogeneity of structural, mechanical and operational properties is a key problem that is further complicated by the possible and realistically probable presence of crack-type faults. The assessment of integrity largely depends on a comprehensive analysis of the welded joint as the most critical place of welded steel structures. Integrity assessment is a necessary obligation for extending the working life, as well as revitalization, as a way to keep the structures in operation, despite the long period of exploitation. This paper presented an analysis of the process of fatigue crack initiation and growth, i.e. an assessment of the of the welded steel structures’ integrity and remaining service life under the influence of variable load.

In the last few years as the road construction budget has been decreasing in Latvia, the number of road construction reinforcement design and construction objects has been increasing. At the beginning of the project development of the existing road condition is assessed, taking into account various pavement evaluation criteria and it is determined on which road sections it is possible to reinforce the pavement and where full construction is required. The road pavement structure in Latvia is developed using “Recommendations for road design. Pavement” and inaccurately defining the bearing capacity of the existing foundation can significantly affect the service life of the designed structure. During the construction of the road, establishing that the bearing capacity of the existing foundation is lower than specified in the project incurs additional costs for the customer. Project changes are made, and special solutions are provided in order to achieve the bearing capacity on the mineral material layers defined in the project. One of the most accurate ways to determine the bearing capacity of existing road structural layers is the static plate test. However, the results of this test are also not 100% accurate and any of them may give unreasonable results due to various influencing factors. The aim of this work is to analyze the results of static plate test by determining the most important factors that affect the obtained load-bearing capacity values, identify biased/erroneous test results, and determine which results reflect the residual load-bearing capacity of the existing road structure.