The paper presents results from social research on the Polish business representatives potentially interested in using the floating buildings. The main purposes of the study were to assess the level of knowledge about floating buildings and diag-nose stimulants and inhibitors of their development in the hotel, catering, and water tourism industry.

Combining the quantitative and the qualitative methodology, research was conducted using an on-line survey (CAWI)and Focused Group Interviews (FGI). Both involved a non-probabilistic, purposive sampling to reach a specific subgroup of the industry: owners or employees of catering, hotel or water tourism companies having or considering having a floating building. The group included both new and long-standing companies using facilities on water or with direct and indirect access to the water.

The study identified stimulating and inhibitory factors broken down into internal (context-independent) and external (context-dependent) conditions. Results show that in Poland floating commercial buildings are a niche topic but also a de-velopable one. Although 71% of the respondents notice difficulties resulting from the insufficient infrastructure and 66.5% of them indicate the lack of legal regulations, they also see the potential of floating buildings: depending on the industry, from 90 to 95% respondents find them “definitely attractive” or “rather attractive”. The most common reason for rejecting floating development is the lack of attractive moorages in the area (43.5% answers).

For the purpose of reducing the impact noise transmission across floating floors in residential buildings, two main sound transmission paths in the floating floor structure are considered: the stud path and the cavity path. The sound transmission of each path is analysed separately: the sound transmission through the cavity and the stud are predicted by statistical energy analysis (SEA). Then, the sound insulation prediction model of the floating floor is established. There is reasonable agreement between the theoretical prediction and measurement, and the results show that a resilient layer with low stiffness can attenuate the sound bridge effect, resulting in higher impact noise insulation. Then, the influences of the floor covering, the resilient layer and the floor plate on the impact sound insulation are investigated to achieve the optimised structure of the floating floor based on the sound insulation.

The article discusses the architectural expression of houses built on water, based on the design process of the floating house in the Czerniakowski Port in Warsaw, designed by Mai Bui Ngoc and Rafał Mazur. The question of the form of the floating house was the starting point of the work on this project. Usually buildings are designed in a specific location, which gives architects an inspiration for the design of the new form. In the case of the floating houses the goal was to make a universal artefact as a car or a phone. This artefact should be more connected to the owner than to the landscape. This artefact should be also neutral to the landscape and it should not be destructive for the surroundings. The answer lays between two archetypes; a typical house and a boat. Analysis of the existing floating houses gave the conclusion that authors of these houses were usually very close to one of these two archetypes. It is a need to put a lot of effort to design an object which does not remind a real house and a yacht design.

A pontoon bridge, also known as a floating bridge, can be used as for pedestrian and vehicle traffic. The buoyancy of the floating bridge limits the maximum load it can carry. This research included experimental runs to study variations of open channel flow characteristics upstream and downstream a floating bridge. Eighty one runs have been carried out using a flume in a hydraulic laboratory. The experimental run program is classified into two main categories; the first investigates the velocity ratios (vds/vus) downstream and upstream the floating bridge. The second category is concerned with the energy head losses (hL) due to the presence of a floating bridge. The experimental runs are carried out using three pontoon lengths, three flow depths, six submerged depths, and three discharges. The results are analysed and graphically presented to help predict hydraulic parameters. The outcomes have shown that the floating bridge upstream, Froude number and submergence of the pontoon are the dominant parameters that affect the studied flow characteristics.

Full-floating ring bearings are state of the art at high speed turbomachinery shafts like in turbochargers. Their main feature is an additional ring between shaft and housing leading to two fluid films in serial arrangement. Analogously, a thrust bearing with an additional separating disk between journal collar and housing can be designed. The disk is allowed to rotate freely only driven by drag torques, while it is radially supported by a short bearing against the journal. This paper addresses this kind of thrust bearing and its implementation into a transient rotor dynamic simulation by solving the Reynolds PDE online during time integration. Special attention is given to the coupling between the different fluid films of this bearing type. Finally, the differences between a coupled and an uncoupled solution are discussed.

Work is being carried out on possibilities of limiting the content of mercury in hard coal products by gravity concentration of run-of-mine coal in the Branch of the Institute of Mechanized Construction and Rock Mining in Katowice and on the Faculty of Energy and Fuels of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow. Under domestic industrial conditions, gravity concentration is carried out with heavy medium liquids and in jigs. Preliminary - pilot studies have shown the possibility of mercury removal also by using the dry deshaling method involving vibratory air separators. Mercury is mainly found in the pyrite and the rubble formed by the mineral carbon, but also in the organic carbon. Some of it is located in layers of coal roof fields, which in the course of their exploitation go to coal. The mercury removal efficiency during the gravity concentration process will depend on the decomposition of the listed components in the density fractions. The paper presents the results of investigations of total mercury and total sulphur content in the separated coal fractions from four mines. These contents were determined in fractions: –1.5 g/cm3 (conventionally clean coal – concentrate), 1.5–1.8 g/cm3 (conventionally middlings) and +1.8 g/cm3 (conventionally rock – waste). The results are summarized in Tables 3–5 and in Charts 1–4. Conversely, graphs 5-8 show the relationship between mercury content and total sulphur content in the tested coal samples. The study, which can be called a preliminary analysis of the susceptibility of the coals to gravity concentration, showed that the dry deshaling method on the vibratory air separators would allow significant amounts of mercury accumulated in the middlings and waste fractions to be removed.

Since the beginning of the 21st century floating buildings have been growing in popularity in Poland. According to market research and quantitative studies, the majority of operative Polish floating buildings serve for commercial purposes, such as short-term rentals, vacation houses and floating marinas. Simultaneously, despite the increasing demand, the development of floating buildings in Poland is limited by the inconsistent legislation, government policy and, most importantly, natural conditions of Polish inland waters. The most attractive sites for floating architecture are the semi-natural lakeshores and riverbanks. At the same time, low water levels and poor maintenance of many Polish basins require special architectural and engineering solutions. The article presents our experience with meeting the market’s demand for small cost-effective floating commercial buildings despite the local shortcomings of inland waters on the example of the floating apartment built in 2019 on the Roś Lake in Pisz, Poland. The presented building was intended as a water-based extension of the existing hotel on land. It was designed as a “modern barn” with all-glazed gable wall allowing for a spectacular view to the lake. With a 50 sqm footprint, the one-story house with a mezzanine has a small draft of 33 cm and meets the stability criteria defined for inland waters. The presented case study shows that integrating the naval architecture theory, Building Information Modeling simulation along with cutting-edge construction techniques such as Scottsdale Construction System (SCS) and polyurethane spray insulation, can bring significant progress into the development of the floating buildings market in Poland.

The paper deals with the digital architecture concept which is trying to introduce a new spatial language into the con-text of water urbanism, using nature as a model, measure and mentor. The first part analyses Biomimetics with its design strategies and methods. The Problem-Based Approach (designers look to nature for solutions) and the Solution-Based Ap-proach (biological knowledge influences human design) are defined here. In the second part of the research, the authors present selected examples to the topic. This case study has demonstrated that a new approach to architectural design is emerging. This approach redefines the process of architectural design, understood not as the traditional shaping of the ob-ject's form, but as a compilation of various factors resulting from changeable climate characteristics and ecology. The con-clusions emphasize that not only the contemporary understanding of ecology should be changed, but also the way architects approach the built environment, especially in the aquatic environment.

Manipulators mounted on small satellites will be used to perform on-orbit servicing, removal of space debris, and assembly of large orbital structures. During such operations, the manipulator must avoid collisions with the target object or the elements of the assembled structure. Planning of the manipulator trajectory is one of the major challenges for the proposed missions because the motion of the manipulator influences the position and orientation of the satellite. Thus, the dynamic equations of motion must be used during trajectory planning. Methods developed for fixed-base manipulators working on Earth cannot be directly applied. In this paper, we propose a new obstacle vector field (OVF) method for collision-free trajectory planning of a manipulator mounted on a free-floating satellite. The OVF method is based on a vector field that surrounds the obstacles and generates virtual forces that drive the manipulator around the obstacles. The OVF method is compared with the classical artificial potential field (APF) method and the rapidly exploring random trees (RRT) method. In the presented examples the trajectory planning problem is solved for a planar case in which the satellite is equipped with a 2 DoF manipulator. It is shown that the OVF method is more efficient than the APF method, i.e., it allows us to solve the trajectory planning problem in some of the cases, in which the APF method is unsuccessful. The time required to find the solution with the use of the OVF method is shorter than the time needed by the APF and the RRT method.

Digital system algorithms such as FFT algorithms, convolution, image processing algorithm, etc. deploy Multiply and Accumulate (MAC) unit as an evaluative component. The efficiency of a MAC typically relies on the speed of operation, power dissipation, and chip area along with the complexity level of the circuit. In this research paper, a power-delay-efficient signed-floating-point MAC (SFMAC) is proposed using Universal Compressor based Multiplier (UCM). Instead of having a complex design architecture, a simple multiplexer-based circuit is used to achieve a signed-floating output. The 8£8 SFMAC can take 8-bit mantissa and 3-bit exponent and therefore, the input to the SFMAC can be in the range of –(7.96875)₁₀ to +(7.96875)₁₀. The design and implementation of the proposed architecture is executed on the Cadence Spectre tool in GPDK 90 nm and TSMC 130 nm CMOS, which proves as power and delay efficient.

Arsenic is the only beneficial impurity for copper electrorefining through inhibiting anode passivation and the formation of floating slimes. The behaviour of copper anodes with different content of arsenic were studied at high current density (>280 A/m ²). It showed that low arsenic anodes (As < 300 ppm) easily generated anode passivation, floating slimes and cathode nodules during the electrorefining proccess. The floating slimes, electrolyte, cathode and anode were observed and analyzed. As result, low arsenic anodes were more likely to be passivated due to their microstructure defects and irregular microstructure. Increasing electrolyte temperature and addition of glycerol were propitious to reduce low arsenic anodes’ passivation. The floating slimes occured when the concentration of As(III) in electrolyte decreased to 1 g/L, and they would be precipitated by polyacrylamide. All measures greatly improved the cathode quality at current density of 300 A/m ².

In response to the problems of high-temperature gas intrusion and ablation in the expansion slit between ceramic tiles under complex flow conditions in the floating-wall combustion chamber, as well as the issue of hooks exceeding their service temperature, numerical simulations and analysis were conducted for this paper. The study revealed the mechanisms of gas intrusion and sealing and proposed two evaluation metrics for evaluating the cooling effect: the maximum temperature of the hook and the proportion of high-temperature area on the sidewall of the tile. Furthermore, the CRITIC weighting method was used to analyze the weight of these metrics. Based on this, the spacing, radius, and length effects on sealing and cooling effectiveness were studied, and multi-parameter calculations and optimization were performed. The results showed that the degree of gas intrusion in the transverse slit was significantly higher than that in the longitudinal slit. In addition, the sealing method of the jet impingement could effectively cool the downstream of both the transverse and longitudinal slit. The spacing of the jet impingement holes had the greatest impact on the cooling effect, followed by the radius and length. Finally, when the spacing of the holes is 10 mm, the length is 18.125 mm, and the radius is 1.6 mm, the cooling effect is optimal, with the proportion of high-temperature area on the side wall of the tile being 20.86% and the highest temperature of the hook reaching 836.02 K.

We investigated sediments of three Sphagnum peatland-lake ecosystems located in Tuchola forest, both in moraine (Małe Leniwe near Rekowo) and outwash plain (Dury and Rybie Oko) landscape. Geological cross-sections were studied for each basin. Characteristic feature of these ecosystems is the presence of floating mats encroaching the lakes and deposition of highly hydrated sediments below the floating mat. Principal conditions favouring the development of peatland-lake ecosystems are (1) location of the lake in a sandy, non-calcareous catchment overgrown by coniferous forest, (2) steep ness of the lake basin, what prevents emerged macrophytes succession and (3) the depth of the basin significantly exceeding 10 m to avoid complete in filling of the lake basin. The developmental pathway in the Dury I basin indicates a shift in lake environment from neutral to acid one. After initial development of Charophytes, Potamogeton and Najas expanded, which later on, were succeeded by Sphagnum due to acidification of the lake water. Initial stages of the development of the lakes were determined mainly by allogenic factors, whereas in later stages autogenic factors (development of floating mat and peat acidifying the lake water) played fundamental role.

The Reserve Dury, Tuchola Pinewoods, Poland, includes five depressions with no outflow filled up with biogenie sediments. They undergo terrestrialization processes to a high degree. In four of the basins there are still some open water areas surrounded by floating mire with raised and transitional bog plants. For the needs of protection service officers some palynological and geological research were carried out. All the geological cores were described in detail following the Troels-Smith system. The deepest core Dury I was selected for pollen analysis. Ten Local Pollen Assemblage Zones (L PAZ) show the history ofregional and local plant communities. On the basis of two air photographs, modem dynamics of floating mire in four basins were evaluated. The results allow us to correlate the geological layers, to describe the Late Glacial and Holocene succession of plant cover at Dury I site, and to show the stages of filling-in of basins with lacustrine sediments and peat.

The article presents two floating architectural structures developed in response to the needs of local communities. The first one – a river barge “Louise-Catherine” – was adapted in 1929 according to the design of Le Corbusier, one of the most influential architects of the first half of the 20th century, for the purposes of Salvation Army shelter docked on the Seine in Paris and it continued its operation as such until 1994. The second one – Bertha von Suttner state junior high school – was developed in a shipyard to serve as a school, which purpose it has been fulfilling since 1994 while moored on the Danube River in Vienna. The author’s intention was to describe both structures while highlighting common features as well as differences, and to analyse them in view of certain selected aspects. The background for the projects’ development was described account taken of different reasons and circumstances. Issues under analysis include decision making processes in terms of architectural programme, functions and spatial developments. The analysis also includes technical aspects such as structural developments, material and infrastructure – in terms of the floating Viennese school – account taken on safety of using a barge as a school establishment. A separate part of the article is dedicated to the issue of social reception, and incase of the former Salvation Army shelter – actions aimed at the protection of a historic structure.