According to the European Environment Agency (EEA 2018), air quality in Poland is one of the worst in Europe. There are several sources of air pollution, but the condition of the air in Poland is primarily the result of the so-called low-stack emissions from the household sector. The main reason for the emission of pollutants is the combustion of low-quality fuels (mainly low-quality coal) and waste, and the use of obsolete heating boilers with low efficiency and without appropriate filters. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of measures aimed at reducing low-stack emissions from the household sector (boiler replacement, change of fuel type, and thermal insulation of buildings), resulting from environmental regulations, on the improvement of energy efficiency and the emission of pollutants from the household sector in Poland. Stochastic energy and mass balance models for a hypothetical household, which were used to assess the impact of remedial actions on the energy efficiency and emission of pollutants, have been developed. The annual energy consumption and emissions of pollutants were estimated for hypothetical households before and after the implementation of a given remedial action. The calculations, using the Monte Carlo simulation, were carried out for several thousand hypothetical households, for which the values of the technical parameters (type of residential building, residential building area, unitary energy demand for heating, type of heat source) were randomly drawn from probability distributions developed on the basis of the analysis of the domestic structure of households. The model takes the coefficients of correlation between the explanatory variables in the model into account. The obtained results were multiplied so that the number of hypothetical households was equal to 14.1 million, i.e. the real number of households in Poland. The obtained results allowed for identifying the potential for reducing the emission of pollutants such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, dust, and nitrogen oxides, and improving the energy efficiency as a result of the proposed and implemented measures, aimed at reducing low-stack emission, resulting from the policy.

The potential for emissions of gaseous pollutants is 94% for CO, 49% for NOx, 90% for dust, and 87% for SO2. The potential for improving the energy efficiency in households is around 42%.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of natural uncertainties and effective parameters on the stability of plate-type rock walls. For this, the effective factors and geo-mechanical properties in the study area were obtained using field experiments. Stability analysis of rock walls was investigated for 40 scenarios in dry and saturated states. These parameters were then evaluated using Easyfit software and Markov chain analysis and Monte Carlo simulation by Rock Plane software. Comparison of the results of numerical and uncertainty methods shows that the rock walls with 60-80 degree slope are stable; and In saturated state they require stability due to the reduction of shear strength. Fixation of the rock walls was also investigated, indicating an optimum angle of 30° for the installation of the rock screw. The results show that the Monte Carlo simulation provides a simpler interpretation and the uncertainty methods are more accurate and reliable than the numerical methods.

This paper concerns load testing of typical bridge structures performed prior to operation. In-situ tests of a twospan post-tensioned bridge loaded with three vehicles of 38-ton mass each formed the input of this study. On the basis of the results of these measurements an advanced FEM model of the structure was developed for which the sensitivity analysis was performed for chosen uncertainty sources. Three uncorrelated random variables representing material uncertainties, imperfections of positioning and total mass of loading vehicles were indicated. Afterwards, two alternative FE models were created based on a fully parametrised geometry of the bridge, differing by a chosen global parameter – the skew angle of the structure. All three solid models were subjected to probabilistic analyses with the use of second-order Response Surface Method in order to define the features of structural response of the models. It was observed that both the ranges of expected deflections and their corresponding mean values decreased with an increase of the skewness of the bridge models. Meanwhile, the coefficient of variation and relative difference between the mean value and boundary quantiles of the ranges remain insensitive to the changes in the skew angle. Owing to this, a procedure was formulated to simplify the process of load testing design of typical bridges differing by a chosen global parameter. The procedure allows - if certain conditions are fulfilled - to perform probabilistic calculations only once and use the indicated probabilistic parameters in the design of other bridges for which calculations can be performed deterministically.