A theoretical and numerical analysis is presented on the squeezed film of an incompressible fluid between two parallel fracture walls induced by seismic waves at normal incidence. In the frame of small oscillations, a closed form of the fluid pressure changes along with the fracture, and the fluid velocity field distribution is proposed. The developed analytical solutions are valid for any relative amplitude and phase of the vibrations within the assumed small oscillations and can help in understanding the induced fluid flow in fractures near zero-offset seismic wave propagation in a fluid-saturated fractured reservoir with nearly parallel fracture walls. It is found that the fluid flow is governed by the squeezing motion due solely to the difference of the vertical fluid velocities. In the absence of experimental data, the analytical solutions are validated with numerical solutions of the full Navier-Stokes equations. The comparison confirms the accuracy of the analytical solutions, showing that average fracture pressure rises with frequency, fracture length squared, and decreasing wall separation. It is also found that the presence of a pressure gradient does not hinder the overall flow during an oscillation cycle. The high induced horizontal acceleration of the fluid can reduce surface tension and improve oil to dissolve in any injected solvents. This may help mobilize fluids in fractured reservoirs, potentially explaining the improved oil recovery observed with surface seismic wave stimulation near production wells. Optimizing flow parameters through accurate fracture characterization can further enhance oil recovery.

End-of-life wind turbine blades, made of glass fiber-reinforced polymers, pose significant recycling challenges due to their complex structure. This study introduces mechanical delamination as an alternative recycling method, efficiently separating fiber and resin fractions without thermal or chemical degradation. The fiber-rich fraction preserves high structural integrity, making it suitable for reinforcement in cementitious materials, while the resin-rich fraction can act as a filler to enhance durability in concrete. Thermogravimetric analysis confirms material recovery efficiency and characterizes the distinct thermal behavior of both fractions. By enabling high-quality fiber recovery and promoting reuse in construction applications, this approach provides a sustainable and scalable solution for wind turbine blade waste within a circular economy framework.

This paper presents a comparative study on the thermal comfort of traditional and contemporary houses in Byblos, Lebanon. With climate change affecting indoor environments and potentially leading to increased energy consumption, achieving optimal thermal comfort is a crucial issue for building research. The study analyzes several environmental parameters and conducts an occupancy survey to assess thermal comfort in both types of houses. The questionnaire used in the survey consists of 46 questions divided into three parts: "Who are you?", "The environment of your house?", and "Architectural characteristics of the house." The results show that traditional houses perform better than contemporary ones in terms of thermal comfort, due to their use of natural and passive methods. However, both types of houses have room for improvement in terms of energy efficiency. This study provides insights into potential solutions for improving indoor thermal comfort while reducing energy consumption in traditional and contemporary houses.

Over the past two decades, the wind turbine industry has grown rapidly. As a result, thousands of tons of composite materials from these end-of-life (EoL) wind turbine blades (WTBs) are discarded every year. Due to their complex structure, which consists of a thermoset matrix with glass (GF) and/or carbon (CF) fibers, their recovery is a challenge and remains limited. The objective of this study is to compare several recycling techniques for composite materials using landfill as a baseline scenario. Several aspects can influence the performance of GF and CF recovery, but one of the most important is the efficiency of recycling technologies in terms of the recovered GF/CF fiber rate. To evaluate this amount of fiber annually, a material flow analysis (MFA) was performed based on the punctual years of 2030, 2040, and 2050. A correlation with other aspects was established and based on maturity level, technical, economic, and environmental aspects. Afterward, recommendations on short and medium/long term circularity objectives were drafted on the most suitable technologies for WTBs circularity.

We present and compare two new methods to calculate the reflection and transmission coefficients of qP, qSV and qSH waves at a flat interface between two contrasting viscoelastic anisotropic half-spaces. The first method is a new version of the real ray tracing method that extends the traditional real ray tracing method to tackle the triplications of the qSV wave. This new version is valid for computing the reflection and transmission coefficients of the qP and qSV waves for all pre- and post-critical angles of incidence, which cannot be handled by the previous approach. The second method employs the real slowness direction and Snell's law to provide approximate reflection and transmission coefficients for such wave modes. This approximate method has attractive advantages which are not only the avoidance of the searching process inherent in the real ray tracing method but also offers competitive economical solutions to the first method. Many viscoelastic VTI models are utilized to validate the two methods. The numerical results show that (1) the ray angles, ray velocities, ray Q-factors, and the magnitudes of the reflection and transmission coefficients obtained by the two methods closely agree with each other, except in the vicinity of the critical angles and (2) the phase angles of the reflected and transmitted waves exhibit complexities due to the existence of some reverse phenomena between the approximate and the real ray tracing solutions. However, such phase discrepancies do not affect the magnitudes of the reflection and transmission coefficients. Moreover, the energy ratios of the different wave modes satisfy the energy conservation criterion at the interface.

The thermal comfort of frail people has to be considered carefully, mainly because of the high thermal sensitivity of this population and the negative influences that unsatisfactory thermal conditions have on their health. Most existing thermal comfort works have been conducted under steady-state, uniform thermal environments, with far fewer being performed in dynamic and non-uniform thermal environments, and even less for frail people. This study aimed at assessing the thermal responses of frail people under transient and non-uniform thermal environments, using a thermal manikin and a climatic test cell. Thermal responses were investigated and discussed in both genders. The analysis of variance showed a significant difference in thermal comfort and thermal sensation between females and males over time, under hot exposure. Under cold exposure, results showed a significant difference in thermal sensation between females and males over time, but no significant difference was observed in term of thermal comfort. Analysis revealed also significant differences in the dynamic thermal sensation between the sexes under cold exposure, while results confirmed that there is no significant difference in the dynamic thermal sensation between sexes under hot exposure.

Oil production and enhanced oil recovery in carbonate reservoirs in Abu Dhabi, UAE, are largely affected by fracture systems that control the fluid path and the permeability of reservoirs. Most fracture properties, such as fracture orientations and density, are obtained by interpreting petrophysical data acquired at the wellbores, whereas fracture properties between wells are typically derived from nonzero offset seismic data. However, deriving fracture properties from seismic data is challenging, as it requires a robust methodology and a careful seismic processing procedure. In the current case study, we used the azimuthal amplitude vs. offset (AVAz) method on 3D seismic data acquired in onshore Abu Dhabi, to generate maps of fracture orientation and density in a carbonate reservoir. A sophisticated processing series was carefully performed to increase signal -to -noise ratio (SNR) and preserve seismic amplitudes. The main parameters controlling the AVAz method were investigated and optimized before being applied to the 3D seismic data. The reservoir has a high fracture density in the lower regions, but a low fracture density in the upper parts, indicating a weaker anisotropy. The resulting dominant fracture directions span from north- northwest/south-southwest to north- northeast/south-southwest, as well as from northwest/southeast to east/west, which is consistent with the primary fracture orientations determined from the interpretation of fullbore formation microimager (FMI) data acquired at well locations. These fracture systems are the result of the Late Cretaceous obduction of the Semail ophiolite, which was oriented east/west and northeast/southwest, followed by the south/north to southwest/northeast trending Late Oligocene-Miocene continent-continent collision of the Arabian and Central Iran plates along the Zagros orogenic front.

The European energy system is increasingly incorporating renewable energies as a result of the wind power market's exponential rise. However, from a life cycle standpoint, there still exists certain issues with wind turbines, especially in end-of-life management. In this study, an overview of the current state of a wind turbine's end-of-life management is provided. Turbines' end-of-life management practices are a difficult endeavor for completing materials loops. The current state of play demonstrates that some materials used in wind turbines are still diverted towards energy recovery or landfills rather than more virtuous management such as recycling, remanufacturing or reuse, which hinder the recyclability and thus circularity of wind turbines. Blades, rare earth elements used in permanent magnets, and critical raw materials used in alloyed components are preventing wind turbines from achieving high recyclability. The remaining difficulties to improve recycling and close the material loop for wind turbines are then highlighted.

Previous studies performed in Abu Dhabi oilfields, United Arab Emirates, revealed the direct link of seismic wave attenuation to petrophysical properties of rocks. However, all those studies were based on zero offset VSP data, which limits the attenuation estimation at one location only. This is due to the difficulty of estimating attenuation from 3D seismic data, especially in carbonate rocks. To overcome this difficulty, we developed a workflow based on the centroid frequency shift method and Gabor transform which is optimized by using VSP data. The workflow was applied on 3D Ocean Bottom Cable seismic data. Distinct attenuation anomalies were observed in highly heterogeneous and saturated zones, such as the reservoirs and aquifers. Scattering shows significant contribution in attenuation anomalies, which is unusual in sandstones. This is due to the complex texture and heterogeneous nature of carbonate rocks. Furthermore, attenuation mechanisms such as frictional relative movement between fluids and solid grains, are most likely other important causes of attenuation anomalies. The slight lateral variation of attenuation reflects the lateral homogeneous stratigraphy of the oilfield. The results demonstrate the potential of seismic wave attenuation for delineating heterogeneous zones with high fluid content, which can substantially help for enhancing oil recovery.

The recycling of light-emitting diode (LED) lamps and tubes is becoming increasingly important due to their growing market share as energy-efficient lighting technology. Here we report on the use of high voltage electric-pulse fragmentation to recover elementary components such as LED chips and printed circuit boards (drivers). E27 LED lamps with plastic bulbs, which represent 48% of deposits collected by a French company, are used as a case study. More than 150 lamps were tested on a laboratory reactor for electrodynamic fragmentation. The technological process in which highly energetic electrical pulses were applied to materials immersed in water was studied in order to separate the components of the LED lamps using a minimal specific energy. The estimated energy necessary to achieve total separation assessed at 64%, without grinding pretreatment, was 5.2 ± 0.6 kWh per ton, representing a mass recycling rate of 74%. Based on the disassembled material, the commercial value of the recovered materials was thus estimated. Gold, as the most representative material, was found to represent 0.03% of the mass fraction for 83.6% of the total commercial value. The process disassembling capacity is a key issue to increase the recycling rate of current LED lamps and tubes.

Thermal comfort has gradually become an important research field in the context of sustainable living. Several thermal comfort studies have been conducted in thermally uniform environments, though far fewer are being performed in non-uniform thermal conditions. Recently, the evaluation of thermal responses in non-uniform thermal environments, has come to the attention of researchers. This study aims to evaluate the thermal responses of frail people using a "Newton" thermal manikin and a test chamber. Personalized cooling and heating floor systems were used to produce non-uniform conditions by supplying global cooling air flow and vertical heat flow to the whole manikin body. In this paper, skin temperature, core temperature, and thermal responses were examined and discussed in both males and females. The analysis showed a significant difference in thermal sensation and dynamic thermal sensation between females and males over time, and under the same experimental conditions. On the other hand, the ANOVA analysis revealed a significant difference in the main effect of gender in terms of thermal comfort. Results show that thermal discomfort in frail people originated largely from air temperature. It was found that air temperature increments of 5 degrees C-30 degrees C can modify thermal comfort by 1.5 scale units' in comparison with the thermal sensation.

The Moho depths of the United Arab Emirate (UAE) and northern Oman mountains estimated from the gravity data assuming general local isostasy deepens from 34-38 km in the western and central areas of the UAE, and reaches 32-36 km and 40-52 km in the foreland basin and Oman-UAE mountains, respectively. To image the morphology of the basement, we performed 3D inversions of gravity and aeromagnetic data constrained by seismic and well data within the sedimentary layer. The inverted susceptibility and density models are generally consistent with each other. They both show that the basement, in most of the UAE, is covered by 8-18 km of sediments with the deepest part occurring within the foreland basin that flanks the western side of the Oman-UAE mountains. Farther west, covering the remainder of the UAE, the gravity and magnetic basement models vary significantly. The basement morphology derived from the density model probably reflects metasediments of weakly to non-magnetic basement with a broad basement high trending SE-NW from the Lekhwair high in the southeast to the northwestern offshore of the UAE that may delineate the present-day position of the flexural bulge caused by loading of the Semail ophiolite. In contrast, the basement morphology derived from the susceptibility model is both smoother and deeper from the west-central of the UAE to the western margin of the foreland basin, which could reflect a deeper magnetic crystalline basement. Moreover, the susceptibility model revealed several magnetic bodies with high susceptibilities interpreted as intra-basement blocks or igneous intrusions.

The real ray-tracing approach leads to an effective solution in the real space domain using a homogeneous ray velocity vector. However, it fails to yield solutions for quasi-S-waves, which suffer from triplications of the wavefronts. To address this challenging problem, a new real ray-tracing method and its two approximations are developed to solve the complex ray equation. The numerical results indicate that the new real ray-tracing method is superior to the common real ray-tracing method in the presence of triplications of the quasi-S-waves in the computation of ray velocity, ray attenuation, and ray quality factors, as well as the reflection and transmission coefficients in viscoelastic anisotropic media. Based on the assumptions of the real slowness direction and real polarization vectors, two new approximations of the new real ray-tracing method are developed for directly computing the homogeneous complex ray velocity vectors of three wave modes (qP, qS1, and qS2). These approximations sig-nificantly improve computational efficiency by avoiding the iter-ative process required by the new real ray-tracing method that is inherited from the common real ray-tracing method. The compu-tational accuracies are verified through transversely isotropic and orthorhombic models with different strengths of attenuation and anisotropy. Incorporation of the new approximation into the shortest-path method turned out to be efficient and accurate for seismic ray tracing in heterogeneous viscoelastic and trans-versely isotropic media with a vertical axis of symmetry, even in the presence of strong attenuation and anisotropy.

Over the past 30 years, the demand for cooling energy has tripled in the Middle East (ME). This is provoked by the need to ensure thermal comfort in a very hot climate, as indoor thermal conditions are important for maintaining occupants' comfort. In a subtropical region, it becomes more critical in terms of energy consumption. This paper investigates the thermal comfort in buildings located in the city of Byblos, Lebanon. Thermal comfort was evaluated using subjective methods. The thermal perceptions of respondents were determined by questionnaires. Indoor environmental conditions such as relative humidity, air temperature, and air velocity were measured using a sensor during winter and summer seasons. While the results show a strong correlation between thermal comfort and architectural parameters, this study specifically focuses on building height and orientation. Findings highlight the need to propose an adapted suitably strategy to evaluate thermal comfort.

Hydrocarbon fields in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are related with Neoproterozoic basement highs and/or Ediacaran-Early Cambrian Hormuz salt domes. However, neither the basement nor Hormuz salt are penetrated or imaged by available well and seismic data due to thick Phanerozoic sediments. In this study, we have used the residual gravity anomaly of the sedimentary layer throughout the UAE by subtracting the gravity response of the basement structure from the isostatic residual gravity anomaly. The structure and distribution of the low-density Hormuz salt were then delineated for the first time by applying a 3D constrained layer inversion method on the residual gravity anomaly of the sedimentary layer. Well data were used to constrain this inversion from which the density of the reference model and the isosurface of the Hormuz salt were defined, whilst seismic profiles were used to qualitatively check the location, shape and depth of the domal structures. The inversion model shows that the Hormuz salt is more widespread in offshore than in onshore UAE and generally occurs within NESW to N-S trending basins. The inverted Hormuz salt model has a thickness that ranges from 1000 to 4000 m, with an average thickness of 2100 m. Moreover, the model suggests that the Hormuz, Ara (central Oman) and East Rub' Al Khali (Saudi Arabia) salt basins are most likely connected, except in regions of structural basement highs. In addition, the model reveals a low density (<= 2290 kg/m3) shallow layer (0-6000 m below the sea level) in the foreland basin, which corresponds to the Aruma and Pabdeh sequences that infill the foreland basin. Many of the offshore hydrocarbon fields in the UAE such as Zakum, Umm Shaif and Sarb are associated with Hormuz salt domes. Also, several hydrocarbon fields adjoin basement highs, which are possibly related to the flexural bulge caused by the emplacement of the Semail ophiolite on the Arabian continental margin. The basement highs are probably bordered by faults, which could have initiated halokinesis of the Hormuz salt. Thus, the 3D inverted model provides a detailed distribution of Hormuz salt bodies, which allows an improved understanding of Palaeozoic hydrocarbon plays in the UAE.

Over the past two decades, the wind turbine industry has grown rapidly. As a result, thousands of tons of composite materials from these end-of-life (EoL) wind turbine blades (WTBs) are discarded every year. Due to their three-dimensional structure, which consists of a thermoset matrix and mainly glass fibers (GF), their recovery is a challenge. The objective of this study is to compare several recycling technologies for composite materials using landfill as a baseline scenario. Several aspects can influence the performance of plastic composite recycling, but one of the most important is the efficiency of recycling technologies in terms of the recovered glass fiber rate. To evaluate this amount of fiber annually, a material flow analysis (MFA) was performed using 2023 as the study year. A correlation with other aspects was established in order to perform a multi-criteria approach based on maturity level, technical, economic and environmental aspects. These criteria are the Technology Readiness (TRL), cost, energy demand and retained tensile strength

In viscoelastic anisotropic media, the elastic moduli, slowness vector, phase, and ray velocity are all complex-valued quantities in the frequency domain. Solving the complex eikonal equation becomes computationally complex and time-consuming. We have developed two approximate methods to effectively calculate the ray velocity vector, attenuation, and quality factor in viscoelastic transversely isotropic media with a vertical symmetry axis (VTI) and in orthorhombic (ORT) anisotropy. The first method is based on the perturbation theory (PER) under the assumption of a homogeneous complex ray vector, which is obtained by applying the elastic background and viscoelastic perturbations to the real and imaginary components of the modulus tensor, respectively. The perturbations of the slowness vectors of the three wave modes (qP, qSV, and qSH) are determined through the vanishing Hamiltonian function. The second method is derived by applying a real slowness direction (RSD) to the inhomogeneous complex slowness vector and then approximately calculating the complex ray velocity vector with the condition of the homogeneous complex vector. The numerical results verify that the two approaches can produce accurate ray velocity vector, attenuation, and quality factors of the qP-wave in viscoelastic VTI and ORT media. The RSD method can yield high accuracies of ray velocity for the qSV- and qSH-wave in viscoelastic VTI models even at triplication of the qSV wavefronts, as well as qS1 and qS2 in a weak ORT medium ([Formula: see text] > 20), except for near the cusp of the qS1 wavefronts (errors approximately 6%) where the PER has more than 10% error.