Volume 115 (2018): Issue 3 (March 2018)

The article presents deliberations about a small city as a desirable living environment of a multi-layered character focusing on sociological issues that take into account the lifestyle of the residents and their preferences. Environmental studies, which reflected the expectations of the residents regarding their living environment, proved to be very important for the matter of the paper. Another issue related to small cities is the architecture responsible for the vitality of the place, its character and intimacy. It often determines the attractiveness of the centre, its history and culture. The considerations provided by the authors were supported by urban analyses, interviews, literature studies and own observations regarding selected urban centres located in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship.

In the present article, we focus on the changing face of the revitalised parts of the city of Liverpool. We present the successful, consistent implementation of a comprehensive vision for the renewal of the city’s port area – neglected and dangerous still at the end of the last century. We indicate the importance of determining the elements of the space that crystallise the urban layout of the city, and skilfully applying those in future concepts. We refer to the main issues related to the renewal process, including the economic and social aspects of the city, as well as to the use of art in the humanisation of the place and the importance of social participation in the approval of design solutions.

The author discusses the city of Oświęcim in terms of the abovementioned aspects, trying to justify that the city of Oświęcim is following the path of development. There are many issues which cover urban renewal through offering an increase of quality: – an improvement of the quality of the public space within a city; the regeneration and modernisation of buildings and technical infrastructure within its Old Town area; – increasing the rest, recreation and tourism offering of the city in areas along the Soła River [16]; – uphold the identity and culture of the area; – use the creative potential that supports economic growth, including the creation of new employment opportunities, creating conditions for new economic investment. Reinforcing the intellectual capital of the city; – use the potential that is Oświęcim’s location at the crossing of transit routes of national and voivodship-level significance.

The paper presents the introduction to problems related to the distilling industry in Poland and its current situation. The theoretical issues related to the production of ethyl alcohol are discussed. The raw materials used and their impact on production efficiency, process steps and their conditions and quality requirements for alcoholic beverages based on ethanol are characterised. The main causes of the problem of distillery in Poland are seen in the import of cheap rectified and dehydrated spirits from other EU countries, which results in a fall in market prices that do not provide for reimbursement of production costs and increase of excise duty in 2014, which significantly contributed to the closure of the distillery. At present, there are around 100 of them in the country, most of which are made of distillates for bio ethanol production.

The paper presents a project of a rectification column working periodically for the production of ethyl alcohol. The project contains an assumption of a steady concentration of the distillate. Thee range of change in the reflux from 1.7 to 13 required to obtain that concentration was calculated. With 50 litres of feed containing 9 mol % ethanol, about 10 litres of distillate was obtained, which has 70 mol % ethanol. Ceramic Raschig rings with a diameter of 15 mm, which, in a column, occupy a height of 0.5 m, were used. The height of the entire column was 0.67 m.

The paper presents the results of studies on the adsorption of a dye from a water solution on activated carbon. An activated carbon with the best adsorption properties for the dye used in the studies was selected experimentally. The equilibrium and kinetic measurements for the selected system were conducted. Constants of linear, Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms were determined. The obtained results have shown that increasing the flow rate of the solution in an adsorber results in increasing the adsorption rate.

This papers concerns measurements of wind pressure distributions on the roofs and side walls of tent hall models. Four tent halls of different shapes and constructions were investigated in the boundary layer wind tunnel at Cracow University of Technology, Poland. On the basis of these measurements, different schemes of wind pressure coefficient distributions for these structures were determined, including mean and extreme values of the coefficients. The obtained results, their analyses and comparisons are of great importance from a structural design point of view for such types of structures.

The effectiveness of signal processing using discrete wavelet transformation depends on the correct choice of basic wavelet function. A model of multi-criteria optimisation of selection of wavelet function was developed based on fuzzy logic. An experimental study of the model was carried out for the most common types of signals selected from the MATLAB database package.

This article describes the main properties of an iterative method of simple knowledge structure creation. The method is based on an inductive learning scheme. The knowledge structure is built automatically and takes the form of a simplified ontology. Knowledge transformation plays a key role in the process of creating the knowledge structure. In order to regular describe many kinds of these transformations the article provides the relevant theoretical background. The task of finding the proper ontology (knowledge structure) is extremely complex. This paper highlights the necessity to investigate efficient search methods; additionally, the work draws attention to the advantages that arise from building the knowledge structure at the minimal possible size. The paper points to possible areas of the method application, especially in connection with problems of the automatic understanding of images and websites.

The paper presents selected causes of problems related to the widely understood phenomenon of secondary contamination of drinking tap water caused by corrosion. The legal aspects, related to the formal responsibility for water quality in water supply systems: cold water and hot water, according to the way it is prepared, have been analysed. The main causes of the deterioration of water quality in water supply systems were characterized by the criteria for assessment of the corrosivity and aggressiveness of the water. Proposals for actions which should be undertaken to prevent secondary water contamination in water supply systems have been drawn up.

In this paper, the K readiness index was adopted in order to evaluate the reliability of the rural water distribution system; complete systems were assessed using the partial survey method. Hydraulic calculations were performed, followed by reliability evaluation with our own NSW programme. In addition, the lengths of the ring and branched sections of the analysed water distribution systems were calculated and 256 computational variants were obtained. Taking into account the values of the K readiness index and the cable lengths, the influence of the pipework system on the level of reliability of a water distribution system with a pumping-hydrophore structure was determined. In the case of a branched system, a moderately strong negative correlation was identified between reliability and the length of pipework.

The article presents the conception of an intelligent system for monitoring and managing the municipal waste disposal in metropolises. Applying advanced IT solutions using intelligent computational techniques enables the passage from the passive position of self-government units (JST) in managing the waste disposal to the active position, especially in decision making during the problem solving of planning systems associated with the organisation management of the complex infrastructure of the waste disposal. The aim of using ICT systems is an increase in the reliability of the economy of systemic waste, monitoring in real time, the stabilization of the work of the system and the optimization of logistic and technological processes in the context of the raw material, energy application and simultaneously limiting the influence on all components of the environment.

In urban areas, particulate matter (PM) are the leading cause of air pollution. They can adversely affect human health. One of the solutions to reduce pollution and improve air quality is the use of plants as natural, biological filters which trap the particles on the leaves. Studies on the assimilation capacity of species (Hedera helix, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, Fagus sylvatica) were analyzed. In addition, based on two examples of structures in Krakow, the storage capacity of vines such as Hedera helix and Parthenocissus quinquefolia and Fagus sylvatica tree, for fraction of PM (0.2–2.5 μm; 2.5–10 μm; 10–100 μm) was estimated. Analyses have shown the particular efficacy of creeping vines in PM capture.

In this article, the results of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling of the hydraulic jump conditions occurring in the experimental prismatic rectangular stilling basin with sudden crosswise expansion are presented. The FLOW 3D software program was used to numerically solve Reynolds Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with the application of the k-ε turbulence model. The influence of the depth magnitude of the stilling basin and the ending sill installation on the hydraulic jump turbulent characteristics and submergence condition changes was investigated. Based on the results of the numerical modelling, it was found that various spatial flow processes contribute to the submergence condition of the hydraulic jump. These processes include: crosswise flow expansion within the stilling basin; local tail water surface level increase and total head loss due to vertical flow contraction; installation of the additional terminal sill. This contribution to the submergence condition allows a reduction in the required depth of the stilling basin, calculated on the basis of a one-dimensional simplified approach without consideration to the spatial characteristic of the hydraulic jump.

Safety is a term referring to lack of threat, guarantee of liquidation or minimizing threats. With regard to drinking water, consumer safety is understood as the probability of avoiding threat resulting from consuming water with quality that is incompatible with applicable normative or lack of water. However, an assumption that the measure of loss of safety is a risk function has become the paradigm. The classical definition of risk implies that it means the possibility of loss, harm with a certain probability. At the same time, there is a term of uncertainty which means lack of certainty and often refers to lack of safety. The main purpose of this paper is to present methods of analysis and risk assessment and the characterization of risk function in probabilistic and fuzzy (possibilistic) aspect.

The aim of the study was the estimation of the ability of hyperelastic material models for the fitting of experimental data obtained in the tensile testing of silicone liners used in lower-limb prosthetics. Three groups of liners were analysed: I – silicone liner, II – part of the liner in which the silicone has a fabric reinforcement, III – silicone liner with an outer covering material. Both longitudinal and circumferential samples were taken. The Neo-Hookean, Mooney-Rivlin and Ogden parameters of constitutive models of hyperelastic materials were calculated.

Problems with parking individual cars, particularly in urban areas, were already experienced by the inhabitants of developed countries in the interwar period. These problems continue to appear, as the number of cars increases and there are fewer and fewer parking spaces. Therefore, solutions are sought after to ensure the largest possible number of parking spaces with the smallest occupied area, especially in large agglomerations of highly developed countries. The article presents one of the possible solutions – rotary car parks (The Rotary Automated Car Parking System; RACPS). The research results reffered to in the article are the effect of works conducted at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Cracow University of Technology in the field of modelling and optimisation of a rotary car park [5, 6, 8].