Abstract
Background: An optimum design of road facilities, such as cantilever columns for traffic lights, with the development of an integration of pole with foundation of street lights on highways is proposed for solving current significant challenges of air pollution.
Method: Patents have been submitted to compose the artificial tree system, which will provide automatically water to road during four seasons without using electric power at all. The proposed structural system is composed of integrated artificial tree structure having reserved rainwater in the optimally designed foundation. Energy harvesting devices are designed to exclude any electronic power via adopting clockwork accumulating deformation energy in circular spring using weight of vehicles and walkers. Preliminary evaluations of design optimization for foundation make it possible to reduce not only the duration of construction but the cost of construction as well. Results: An example design foundation under a 12m superstructure is optimized as 30% by decreasing embedded depth of foundation, while increasing the depth of embedded connection parts. Resultantly, the necessary depth of foundation is deceased, which could be an incentive, providing an economic solution. However, the optimum depths and dimensions of integrated structures are sensitively dependent on earth properties and dimensions of foundation. Conclusion: The proposed artificial tree system would provide automatically reserved water for reducing micro-dust near roadsides without any external power, which cannot be expected in natural trees. Optimum design of superstructures and full scale experiments are planned to embody the proposed patents.Keywords: Artificial tree, reducing air pollution reduction, integrated pole, design, optimization, foundation.
Graphical Abstract