Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) has been proven to be an effective methodology to improve system design reliability. However, the standard approach reveals some weaknesses when applied to wind turbine systems. The conventional criticality assessment method has been criticized as having many limitations such as the weighting of severity and detection factors. In this paper, we aim to overcome these drawbacks and develop a hybrid cost-FMEA by integrating cost factors to assess the criticality, these costs vary from replacement costs to expected failure costs. Then, a quantitative comparative study is carried out to point out average failure rate, main cause of failure, expected failure costs and failure detection techniques. A special reliability analysis of gearbox and rotor-blades are presented.

The Circular Economy is gaining recognition for its attention to increasing material circularity by proposing a set of value retention options, and organizing business, institutions, and policies for their implementation. Light emitting diode (LED) lamp recycling is becoming increasingly important due to their growing market share and precious metal content. Instead of the current shredding approach, this study applied higher value retention options, such as testing for the functionality of the bulb at the product level, manual disassembly to reuse parts at the component level, and automatic disassembly for industrial scale reuse. This study finds that the effort that is needed to implement higher value retention options (such as reuse) requires a new form of secondary business, wider networks of recycling chains, and favorable policies. It also shows that about 50% of the lamp waste stream is still functioning and economically attractive if they are remarketed. However, the demand-pull market conditions seem to be missing. For manual disassembly, the output fractions are cleaner, but it is not economically feasible due to high labor cost. On the other hand, automatic disassembly does not produce cleaner fractions due to wide design variability. Thus, this study suggests that shifting from shredding-focused-resource recovery to reuse-based-resource circularity requires a comprehensive framework that simultaneously encourages secondary market formation, collaboration between manufacturers, recyclers and companies, and the formulation of favorable reuse policies. This study applies insights from circular economy principles to LED lamp recycling, and it also contributes to the latter by identifying challenges and possible solutions.

This paper investigates adaptive thermal comfort during summer in medical residences that are located in the French city of Troyes and managed by the Association of Parents of Disabled Children (APEI). Thermal comfort in these buildings is evaluated using subjective measurements and objective physical parameters. The thermal sensations of respondents were determined by questionnaires, while thermal comfort was estimated using the predicted mean vote (PMV) model. Indoor environmental parameters (relative humidity, mean radiant temperature, air temperature, and air velocity) were measured using a thermal environment sensor during the summer period in July and August 2018. A good correlation was found between operative temperature, mean radiant temperature, and PMV. The neutral temperature was determined by linear regression analysis of the operative temperature and Fanger’s PMV model. The obtained neutral temperature is 23.7 °C. Based on the datasets and questionnaires, the adaptive coefficient α representing patients’ capacity to adapt to heat was found to be 1.261. A strong correlation was also observed between the sequential thermal index $\mathrm{n}\left(\mathrm{t}\right)$ and the adaptive temperature. Finally, a new empirical model of adaptive temperature was developed using the data collected from a longitudinal survey in four residential buildings of APEI in summer, and the obtained adaptive temperature is 25.0 °C with upper and lower limits of 24.7 °C and 25.4 °C.