Search results for: building acoustic

Authors: Yi Yin Chen, Changsoo Hur

Abstract:

This study explores the role of totems and decorative texts on an indigenous primary school campus in Taiwan, as well as how they affect the building of the cultural identity of indigenous students. By employing Roland Barthes' semiotic theory, this research aims to uncover the cultural meanings and social functions contained in these visual symbols, as well as their significance for building a cultural identity among indigenous students. The study uses a qualitative method, combining observations, interviews, and document analysis to explore how these symbols perform as carriers of hidden meaning and contribute to educational and cultural settings. The findings show that totems on the indigenous school campus reflect the ethnic group's cultural background knowledge, allowing students to study their cultural heritage and providing a sense of belonging. However, certain textual decorations also reflect the historical influence of the hegemonic government attempting to establish moral norms in the ethnic group. This coexistence of traditional ethnic totems and hegemonic textual admonitions in the school environment creates a complex identity landscape for students, leading to a multiplicity of cultural identities. It underlines the importance of culturally relevant symbols in enhancing students' cultural heritage and identity and presents the challenges posed by conflicting cultural messages within the educational context.

Keywords: Roland Barthes, semiotic, Indigenous, Bunun

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Authors: Reda Mankbadi

Abstract:

There are several technologically-important flow situations in which there is a need to control the outcome of the fluid flow. This could include flow separation, drag, noise, as well as particulate separations, to list only a few. One possible approach is the passive control, in which the design geometry is changed. An alternative approach is the Active Flow Control (AFC) technology in which an actuator is imbedded in the flow field to change the outcome. Examples of AFC are pulsed jets, synthetic jets, plasma actuators, heating and cooling, Etc. In this work will present an overview of the development of this field. Some examples will include: Airfoil Noise Suppression: LES is used to simulate the effect of the synthetic jet actuator on controlling the far field sound of a transitional airfoil. The results show considerable suppression of the noise if the synthetic jet is operated at frequencies. Mixing Enhancement and suppression: Results will be presented to show that imposing acoustic excitations at the nozzle exit can lead to enhancement or reduction of the jet plume mixing. In a vertical takeoff of Aircraft or in Space Launch, we will present results on the effects of water injection on reducing noise, and on protect the structure and pay load from fatigue damage. Other applications will include airfoil-gust interaction and propulsion systems optimizations.

Keywords: aerodynamics, simulations, aeroacoustics, active flow control (AFC), Large-Eddy Simulations (LES)

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Authors: Ndibarefinia Tobin

Abstract:

The UK construction industry has been under pressure for many years to produce economical buildings which offer value for money, not only during the construction phase, but more importantly, during the full life of the building. Whole life costing is considered as an economic analysis tool that takes into account the total investment cost in and ownership, operation and subsequent disposal of a product or system to which the whole life costing method is being applied. In spite of its importance, the practice is still crippled by the lack of tangible evidence, ‘know-how’ skills and knowledge of the practice i.e. the lack of professionals with the knowledge and training on the use of the practice in construction project, this situation is compounded by the absence of available data on whole life costing from relevant projects, lack of data collection mechanisms and so on. The aforementioned problems has forced many construction organisations to adopt project enhancement initiatives to boost their performance on the use of whole life costing techniques so as to produce economical buildings which offer value for money during the construction stage also the whole life of the building/asset. The management of knowledge in whole life costing is considered as one of the many project enhancement initiative and it is becoming imperative in the performance and sustainability of an organisation. Procuring building projects using whole life costing technique is heavily reliant on the knowledge, experience, ideas and skills of workers, which comes from many sources including other individuals, electronic media and documents. Due to the diversity of knowledge, capabilities and skills of employees that vary across an organisation, it is significant that they are directed and coordinated efficiently so as to capture, retrieve and share knowledge in order to improve the performance of the organisation. The implementation of knowledge management concept has different levels in each organisation. Measuring the maturity level of knowledge management in whole life costing practice will paint a comprehensible picture of how knowledge is managed in construction organisations. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify knowledge management maturity in UK construction organisations adopting whole life costing in construction project. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted a survey method and conducted by distributing questionnaires to large construction companies that implement knowledge management activities in whole life costing practice in construction project. Four level of knowledge management maturity was proposed on this study. Findings: From the results obtained in the study shows that 34 contractors at the practiced level, 26 contractors at managed level and 12 contractors at continuously improved level.

Keywords: knowledge management, whole life costing, construction industry, knowledge

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Authors: Ali Shirazi, Robert A. Taylor, Stephen D. White, Graham L. Morrison

Abstract:

In this paper, a detailed simulation model of a solar-powered triple-effect LiBr–H₂O absorption chiller is developed to supply both cooling and heating demand of a large-scale building, aiming to reduce the fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in building sector. TRNSYS 17 is used to simulate the performance of the system over a typical year. A combined energetic-economic-environmental analysis is conducted to determine the system annual primary energy consumption and the total cost, which are considered as two conflicting objectives. A multi-objective optimization of the system is performed using a genetic algorithm to minimize these objectives simultaneously. The optimization results show that the final optimal design of the proposed plant has a solar fraction of 72% and leads to an annual primary energy saving of 0.69 GWh and annual CO₂ emissions reduction of ~166 tonnes, as compared to a conventional HVAC system. The economics of this design, however, is not appealing without public funding, which is often the case for many renewable energy systems. The results show that a good funding policy is required in order for these technologies to achieve satisfactory payback periods within the lifetime of the plant.

Keywords: economic, environmental, multi-objective optimization, solar air-conditioning, triple-effect absorption chiller

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Authors: Ji Xi, Cheng Song Chin, Ehsan Mesbahi

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Structure-borne noise is an important aspect of offshore platform sound field. It can be generated either directly by vibrating machineries induced mechanical force, indirectly by the excitation of structure or excitation by incident airborne noise. Therefore, limiting of the transmission of vibration energy throughout the offshore platform is the key to control the structure-borne noise. This is usually done by introducing damping treatment to the steel structures. Two types of damping treatment using on-board are presented. By conducting a statistical energy analysis (SEA) simulation on a jack-up rig, the noise level in the source room, the neighboring rooms, and remote living quarter cabins are compared before and after the damping treatments been applied. The results demonstrated that, in the source neighboring room and living quarter area, there is a significant noise reduction with the damping treatment applied, whereas in the source room where air-borne sound predominates that of structure-borne sound, the impact is not obvious. The subsequent optimization design of damping treatment in the offshore platform can be made which enable acoustic professionals to implement noise control during the design stage for offshore crews’ hearing protection and habitant comfortability.

Keywords: statistical energy analysis, damping treatment, noise control, offshore platform

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Authors: Galit Shiff, Yael Gilad

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The need to retrofit old buildings lies in the fact that buildings are responsible for the main energy use and CO₂ emission. Existing old structures are more dominant in their effect than new energy-efficient buildings. Nevertheless not every case of urban renewal that aims to replace old buildings with new neighbourhoods necessarily has a financial or sustainable justification. Façade design plays a vital role in the building's energy performance and the unit's comfort conditions. A retrofit façade residential methodology and feasibility applicative study has been carried out for the past four years, with two projects already fully renovated. The intention of this study is to serve as a case study for limited budget façade retrofit in Mediterranean climate urban areas. The two case study buildings are set in Israel. However, they are set in different local climatic conditions. One is in 'Sderot' in the south of the country, and one is in' Migdal Hahemek' in the north of the country. The building typology is similar. The budget of the projects is around $14,000 per unit and includes interventions at the buildings' envelope while tenants are living in. Extensive research and analysis of the existing conditions have been done. The building's components, materials and envelope sections were mapped, examined and compared to relevant updated standards. Solar radiation simulations for the buildings in their surroundings during winter and summer days were done. The energy rate of each unit, as well as the building as a whole, was calculated according to the Israeli Energy Code. The buildings’ facades were documented with the use of a thermal camera during different hours of the day. This information was superimposed with data about the electricity use and the thermal comfort that was collected from the residential units. Later in the process, similar tools were further used in order to compare the effectiveness of different design options and to evaluate the chosen solutions. Both projects showed that the most problematic units were the ones below the roof and the ones on top of the elevated entrance floor (pilotis). Old buildings tend to have poor insulation on those two horizontal surfaces which require treatment. Different radiation levels and wall sections in the two projects influenced the design strategies: In the southern project, there was an extreme difference in solar radiations levels between the main façade and the back elevation. Eventually, it was decided to invest in insulating the main south-west façade and the side façades, leaving the back north-east façade almost untouched. Lower levels of radiation in the northern project led to a different tactic: a combination of basic insulation on all façades, together with intense treatment on areas with problematic thermal behavior. While poor execution of construction details and bad installation of windows in the northern project required replacing them all, in the southern project it was found that it is more essential to shade the windows than replace them. Although the buildings and the construction typology was chosen for this study are similar, the research shows that there are large differences due to the location in different climatic zones and variation in local conditions. Therefore, in order to reach a systematic and cost-effective method of work, a more extensive catalogue database is needed. Such a catalogue will enable public housing companies in the Mediterranean climate to promote massive projects of renovating existing old buildings, drawing on minimal analysis and planning processes.

Keywords: facade, low budget, residential, retrofit

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Authors: Uğur Tuztaşi, Mehmet Uysal, Yavuz Arat

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The tomb (grave) structures that have influenced the architectural culture from the Seljuk times to the Ottoman throughout Anatolia are members of a continuing building tradition in terms of monumental expression and styles. This building typology which has religious and cultural permeability in view of spatial traces and structural formations follows the entire trajectory of the respect to death and the deceased from the Seljuks to the Ottomans and also the changing burial traditions epitomised in the form of mausoleums in the Turkish Republic. Although the cultural layers have the same contents with regards to the cult of monument this architectural tradition which evolved from tombs to mausoleums changed in both typological formation and structural size. In short, the tomb tradition with unique examples of architectural functions and typological formations has been encountered from 13th century onwards and continued during the Ottoman period with changes in form and has transformed to mausoleums during the 20th century. This study analyses the process of transformation from complex structures to simple structures and then to monumental graves in terms of architectural expression. Moreover, the study interrogates the architectural language of Anatolian Seljuk tombs to Ottoman tombs and monumental graves built during the republican period in terms of spatial and structural contexts.

Keywords: death and space in Turks, monumental graves, language of architectural style, morphological transformations

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Authors: Sheena Christabel Pravin, M. Palanivelan

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Speech disfluencies are common in spontaneous speech. The primary purpose of this study was to distinguish linguistic disfluencies from stuttering disfluencies in bilingual Tamil–English (TE) speaking children. The secondary purpose was to determine whether their disfluencies are mediated by native language dominance and/or on an early onset of developmental stuttering at childhood. A detailed study was carried out to identify the prosodic and acoustic features that uniquely represent the disfluent regions of speech. This paper focuses on statistical modeling of repetitions, prolongations, pauses and interjections in the speech corpus encompassing bilingual spontaneous utterances from school going children – English and Tamil. Two classifiers including Hidden Markov Models (HMM) and the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), which is a class of feed-forward artificial neural network, were compared in the classification of disfluencies. The results of the classifiers document the patterns of disfluency in spontaneous speech samples of school-aged children to distinguish between Children Who Stutter (CWS) and Children with Language Impairment CLI). The ability of the models in classifying the disfluencies was measured in terms of F-measure, Recall, and Precision.

Keywords: bi-lingual, children who stutter, children with language impairment, hidden markov models, multi-layer perceptron, linguistic disfluencies, stuttering disfluencies

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Authors: B. Soni, S. Biswas

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Metal foams of Al find diverse applications in several industrial sectors such as in automotive and sports equipment industry as impact, acoustic and vibration absorbers, the aerospace industry as structural components in turbines and spatial cones, in the naval industry as low frequency vibration absorbers, and in construction industry as sound barriers inside tunnels, as fire proof materials and structure protection systems against explosions and even in heat exchangers, orthopedic components, and decorative items. Here, we report on the development of Al foams by a low cost and convenient technique of salt replication method with efficient control over size, geometry and distribution of the pores. Sodium bicarbonate was used as the foaming agent to form the porous refractory salt pattern. The mixed refractory salt slurry was microwave dried followed by sintering for selected time periods. Molten Al was infiltrated into the salt pattern in an inert atmosphere at a pressure of 2 bars. The final products were obtained by leaching out the refractory salt pattern. Mechanical properties of the derived samples were studied with a universal testing machine. The results were analyzed in correlation with their microstructural features evaluated with a scanning electron microscope (SEM).

Keywords: metal foam, Al, salt replication method, mechanical properties, SEM

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Authors: S. Colclough, V. Costanzo, K. Fabbri, S. Piraccini, P. Griffiths

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The near Zero Energy Building (nZEB) standard is required for all buildings from 2020. The Passive House (PH) standard is a well-established low-energy building standard, having been designed over 25 years ago, and could potentially be used to achieve the nZEB standard in combination with renewables. By comparing measured performance with design predictions, this paper considers if there is a performance gap for a number of monitored properties and assesses if the nZEB standard can be achieved by following the well-established PH scheme. Analysis is carried out based on monitoring results from real buildings located in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Italy respectively, with particular focus on the indoor air quality including the assumed and measured indoor temperature and heating periods for both standards as recorded during a full annual cycle. An analysis is carried out also on the energy performance certificates of each of the dwellings to determine if they meet the near Zero Energy Buildings primary energy consumption targets set in the respective jurisdictions. Each of the dwellings is certified as complying with the passive house standard, and accordingly have very good insulation levels, heat recovery and ventilation systems of greater than 75% efficiency and an airtightness of less than 0.6 air changes per hour at 50 Pa. It is found that indoor temperature and relative humidity were within the comfort boundaries set in the design stage, while carbon dioxide concentrations are sometimes higher than the values suggested by EN 15251 Standard for comfort class I especially in bedrooms.

Keywords: monitoring campaign, nZEB (near zero energy buildings), Passivhaus, performance gap

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Authors: Lucas Caldas, Pablo Paulse, Karla Hora

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Shipping containers are present in different Brazilian cities, firstly used for transportation purposes, but which become waste materials and an environmental burden in their end-of-life cycle. In the last decade, in Brazil, some buildings made partly or totally from shipping containers started to appear, most of them for commercial and office uses. Although the use of a reused container for buildings seems a sustainable solution, it is very important to measure the thermal and energy aspects when they are used as such. In this context, this study aims to evaluate the thermal and energy performance of an office building totally made from a 12-meter-long, High Cube 40’ shipping container in different Brazilian Bioclimatic Zones. Four different constructive solutions, mostly used in Brazil were chosen: (1) container without any covering; (2) with internally insulated drywall; (3) with external fiber cement boards; (4) with both drywall and fiber cement boards. For this, the DesignBuilder with EnergyPlus was used for the computational simulation in 8760 hours. The EnergyPlus Weather File (EPW) data of six Brazilian capital cities were considered: Curitiba, Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Campo Grande, Teresina and Rio de Janeiro. Air conditioning appliance (split) was adopted for the conditioned area and the cooling setpoint was fixed at 25°C. The coefficient of performance (CoP) of air conditioning equipment was set as 3.3. Three kinds of solar absorptances were verified: 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 of exterior layer. The building in Teresina presented the highest level of energy consumption, while the one in Curitiba presented the lowest, with a wide range of differences in results. The constructive option of external fiber cement and drywall presented the best results, although the differences were not significant compared to the solution using just drywall. The choice of absorptance showed a great impact in energy consumption, mainly compared to the case of containers without any covering and for use in the hottest cities: Teresina, Rio de Janeiro, and Campo Grande. This study brings as the main contribution the discussion of constructive aspects for design guidelines for more energy-efficient container buildings, considering local climate differences, and helps the dissemination of this cleaner constructive practice in the Brazilian building sector.

Keywords: bioclimatic zones, Brazil, shipping containers, thermal and energy performance

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Authors: A. Roukbi, B. Draoui

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Due to the high cost and the environmental problems caused by the conventional air-conditioning systems, various researches are being increasingly focused on thermal comfort in the building sector integrating renewable energy sources, particularly solar energy. For that purpose, this study aims to present a modeling and performance analysis of a direct air-cooled Water/LiBr absorption chiller. The chiller is considered to be coupled to a small residential building at an arid zone situated in south Algeria. The system is modeled with TRNSYS simulation program. The main objective is to study the feasibility of the chosen system in arid zones and to apply a simplified method to predict the performance of the system by mean of the characteristic equation approach tacking in account the influence of the climatic conditions of the considered site, the collector area and storage volume of the hot water tank on the performance of the installation. First, the results of the system modeling are compared with an experimental data from the open literature and the developed model is then validated. In another hand, a parametric study is performed to analyze the performance of the direct air-cooled absorption chiller at the operating conditions of interest for the present study. Thus, the obtained results has shown that the studied system can present a good alternative for cooling systems in arid zones since the cooling load is roughly in phase with solar availability.

Keywords: absorption chiller, air-cooled, arid zone, thermal comfort

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Authors: Atefeh Omidkhah, Mohammadreza Bemanian

Abstract:

The issue of way-finding earmarks a wide range of literature in architecture and despite the 50 year background of way-finding studies, it still lacks a comprehensive theory for indoor settings. Way-finding has a notable role in emergency evacuation as well. People in the panic situation of a fire emergency need to find the safe egress route correctly and in as minimum time as possible. In this regard the parameters of an appropriate way-finding are mentioned in the evacuation related researches albeit scattered. This study reviews the fire safety related literature to extract a way-finding related framework for architectural purposes of the design of a safe evacuation route. In this regard a research trend review in addition with applied methodological approaches review is conducted. Then by analyzing eight original researches related to way-finding parameters in fire evacuation, main parameters that affect way-finding in emergency situation of a fire incident are extracted and a framework was developed based on them. Results show that the issues related to exit route and emergency evacuation can be chased in task oriented studies of way-finding. This research trend aims to access a high-level framework and in the best condition a theory that has an explanatory capability to define differences in way-finding in indoor/outdoor settings, complex/simple buildings and different building types or transitional spaces. The methodological advances demonstrate the evacuation way-finding researches in line with three approaches that the latter one is the most up-to-date and precise method to research this subject: real actors and hypothetical stimuli as in evacuation experiments, hypothetical actors and stimuli as in agent-based simulations and real actors and semi-real stimuli as in virtual reality environment by adding multi-sensory simulation. Findings on data-mining of 8 sample of original researches in way-finding in evacuation indicate that emergency way-finding design of a building should consider two level of space cognition problems in the time of emergency and performance consequences of them in the built environment. So four major classes of problems in way-finding which are visual information deficiency, confusing layout configuration, improper navigating signage and demographic issues had been defined and discussed as the main parameters that should be provided with solutions in design and interior of a building. In the design phase of complex buildings, which face more reported problem in way-finding, it is important to consider the interior components regarding to the building type of occupancy and behavior of its occupants and determine components that tend to become landmarks and set the architectural features of egress route in line with the directions that they navigate people. Research on topological cognition of environmental and its effect on way-finding task in emergency evacuation is proposed for future.

Keywords: architectural design, egress route, way-finding, fire safety, evacuation

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Authors: Mohsen Azarmjoo, Mehdi Mehdizadeh Koupaei, Maryam Mehdizadeh Koupaei, Asghar Mahdlouei Azar

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The increasing prevalence of wireless networks in our daily lives has made them indispensable. The aim of this research is to investigate the management of information transfer in wireless networks and the integration of renewable solar energy resources in a residential building. The focus is on the transmission of electricity and information through wireless networks, as well as the utilization of sensors and wireless fire alarm systems. The research employs a descriptive approach to examine the transmission of electricity and information on a wireless network with electric and optical telephone lines. It also investigates the transmission of signals from sensors and wireless fire alarm systems via radio waves. The methodology includes a detailed analysis of security, comfort conditions, and costs related to the utilization of wireless networks and renewable solar energy resources. The study reveals that it is feasible to transmit electricity on a network cable using two pairs of network cables without the need for separate power cabling. Additionally, the integration of renewable solar energy systems in residential buildings can reduce dependence on traditional energy carriers. The use of sensors and wireless remote information processing can enhance the safety and efficiency of energy usage in buildings and the surrounding spaces.

Keywords: renewable energy, intelligentization, wireless sensors, fire alarm system

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Authors: Sarah M. Oteifa, Lobna A. Sherif, Yasser M. Mostafa

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Visually impaired people, in their daily lives, face struggles and spatial barriers because the built environment is often designed with an extreme focus on the visual element, causing what is called architectural visual bias or ocularcentrism. The aim of the study is to holistically understand the world of the visually impaired as an attempt to extract the qualities of space that accommodate their needs, and to show the importance of multi-sensory, holistic designs for the blind. Within the framework of existential phenomenology, common themes are reached through "intersubjectivity": experience descriptions by blind people and blind architects, observation of how blind children learn to perceive their surrounding environment, and a personal lived blind-folded experience are analyzed. The extracted themes show how visually impaired people filter out and prioritize tactile (active, passive and dynamic touch), acoustic and olfactory spatial qualities respectively, and how this happened during the personal lived blind folded experience. The themes clarify that haptic and aural inclusive designs are essential to create environments suitable for the visually impaired to empower them towards an independent, safe and efficient life.

Keywords: architecture, architectural ocularcentrism, multi-sensory design, visually impaired

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Authors: Medya Fathi

Abstract:

Moving toward sustainable development is among today’s critical issues worldwide that make all industries, particularly construction, pay increasing attention to a healthy environment and a society with a prosperous economy. One of the solutions is to improve buildings’ energy performance by cutting energy consumption and related carbon emissions, eventually improving the quality of life. Unfortunately, the energy demand for buildings is rising. For instance, in Europe, the building sector accounts for 19% of the global energy-related greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions, the main contributor to global warming in the last 50 years, and 36% of the total CO2 emissions, according to European Commission 2019. The crisis of energy use demands expanding knowledge and understanding of the potential benefits of energy-efficient buildings. In this regard, the present paper aims to critically review the existing body of knowledge on improving energy efficiency in buildings and detail the significant research contributions. Peer-reviewed journal articles published in the last decade in reputed journals were reviewed using the database Scopus and keywords of Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Energy Performance, Energy Consumption, Energy Efficiency, and Buildings. All contributions will be classified by journal type, publication time, country/region, building occupancy type, applied strategies, and findings. This study will provide an essential basis for researchers working on missing areas and filling the existing gaps in the body of knowledge.

Keywords: sustainability, energy performance, energy efficiency, buildings, review

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Authors: R. R. Mankbadi

Abstract:

There are several technologically-important flow situations in which there is a need to control the outcome of the fluid flow. This could include flow separation, drag, noise, as well as particulate separations, to list only a few. One possible approach is the passive control, in which the design geometry is changed. An alternative approach is the Active Flow Control (AFC) technology in which an actuator is embedded in the flow field to change the outcome. Examples of AFC are pulsed jets, synthetic jets, plasma actuators, heating, and cooling, etc. In this work will present an overview of the development of this field. Some examples will include Airfoil Noise Suppression: Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) is used to simulate the effect of synthetic jet actuator on controlling the far field sound of a transitional airfoil. The results show considerable suppression of the noise if the synthetic jet is operated at frequencies. Mixing Enhancement and suppression: Results will be presented to show that imposing acoustic excitations at the nozzle exit can lead to enhancement or reduction of the jet plume mixing. In vertical takeoff of Aircrafts or in Space Launch, we will present results on the effects of water injection on reducing noise, and on protecting the structure and payload from fatigue damage. Other applications will include airfoil-gust interaction and propulsion systems optimizations.

Keywords: aeroacoustics, flow control, aerodynamics, large eddy simulations

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Authors: Nika Botchorishvili, Olgha Giorgishvili

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Many-year investigations of the nature of damping creep of rigid bodies and materials led to the discovery of the fundamental character of this phenomenon. It occurs only when a rigid body comes in contact with a surface-active medium (liquid or gaseous), which brings about a decrease of the free surface energy of a rigid body as a result of adsorption, chemo-sorption or wetting. The reversibility of the process consists of a gradual disappearance of creep deformation when the action of a surface-active medium stops. To clarify the essence of processes, a physical model is constructed by using Griffith’s scheme and the well-known representation formulas of deformation origination and failure processes. The total creep deformation is caused by the formation and opening of microcracks throughout the material volume under the action of load. This supposedly happens in macroscopically homogeneous silicate and organic glasses, while in polycrystals (tuff, gypsum, steel) contacting with a surface-active medium micro crack are formed mainly on the grain boundaries. The creep of rubber is due to its swelling activated by stress. Acknowledgment: All experiments are financially supported by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia. Study of Properties of Concretes (Both Ordinary and Compacted) Made of Local Building Materials and Containing Admixtures, and Their Further Introduction in Construction Operations and Road Building. DP2016_26. 22.12.2016.

Keywords: process reversibility, surface-active medium, Rebinder’s effect, micro crack, creep

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Authors: Pegah Farshadmanesh, Jamshid Mohammadi, Mehdi Modares

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In nearly all earthquakes of the past century that resulted in moderate to significant damage, the occurrence of postearthquake fire ignition (PEFI) has imposed a serious hazard and caused severe damage, especially in urban areas. In order to reduce the loss of life and property caused by post-earthquake fires, there is a crucial need for predictive models to estimate the PEFI risk. The parameters affecting PEFI risk can be categorized as: 1) factors influencing fire ignition in normal (non-earthquake) condition, including floor area, building category, ignitability, type of appliance, and prevention devices, and 2) earthquake related factors contributing to the PEFI risk, including building vulnerability and earthquake characteristics such as intensity, peak ground acceleration, and peak ground velocity. State-of-the-art statistical PEFI risk models are solely based on limited available earthquake data, and therefore they cannot predict the PEFI risk for areas with insufficient earthquake records since such records are needed in estimating the PEFI model parameters. In this paper, the correlation between normal condition ignition risk, peak ground acceleration, and PEFI risk is examined in an effort to offer a means for predicting post-earthquake ignition events. An illustrative example is presented to demonstrate how such correlation can be employed in a seismic area to predict PEFI hazard.

Keywords: fire risk, post-earthquake fire ignition (PEFI), risk management, seismicity

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Authors: Vinay Agrawal, Suyash Garg, Ravindra Nagar, Vinay Chandwani

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Open ground storey with floating columns is a typical feature in the modern multistory constructions in urban India. Such features are very much undesirable in buildings built in seismically active areas. The present study proposes a feasible solution to mitigate the effects caused due to non-uniformity of stiffness and discontinuity in load path and to simultaneously hold the functional use of the open storey particularly under the floating column, through a combination of various lateral strengthening systems. An investigation is performed on an example building with nine different analytical models to bring out the importance of recognising the presence of open ground storey and floating columns. Two separate analyses on various models of the building namely, the equivalent static analysis and the response spectrum analysis as per IS: 1893-2002 were performed. Various measures such as incorporation of Chevron bracings and shear walls, strengthening the columns in the open ground storey, and their different combinations were examined. The analysis shows that, in comparison to two short ones separated by interconnecting beams, the structural walls are most effective when placed at the periphery of the buildings and used as one long structural wall. Further, it can be shown that the force transfer from floating columns becomes less horizontal when the Chevron Bracings are placed just below them, thereby reducing the shear forces in the beams on which the floating column rests.

Keywords: equivalent static analysis, floating column, open ground storey, response spectrum analysis, shear wall, stiffness irregularity

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Authors: Jerry Szatko, Edan L. Jorgensen, Stacia Jorgensen

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A crucial component to the success of any financial advising relationship is for the financial professional to understand the perceptions, preferences and thought-processes carried by the financial clients they serve. Armed with this information, financial professionals are more quickly able to understand how they can tailor their approach to best match the individual preferences and needs of each personal investor. Our research explores the use of a quantitative assessment tool in the financial services industry to assist in the identification of the personal investor’s consumer behaviors, especially in terms of financial risk tolerance, as it relates to their financial decision making. Through this process, the Unitifi Consumer Insight Tool (UCIT) was created and refined to capture and categorize personal investor financial behavioral categories and the financial personality tendencies of individuals prior to the initiation of a financial advisement relationship. This paper discusses the use of this tool to place individuals in one of four behavior-based financial risk tolerance categories. Our discoveries and research were aided through administration of a web-based survey to a group of over 1,000 individuals. Our findings indicate that it is possible to use a quantitative assessment tool to assist in predicting the behavioral tendencies of personal consumers when faced with consumer financial risk and decisions.

Keywords: behavior-based advising, financial relationship building, risk capacity based on behavior, risk tolerance, systematic way to assist in financial relationship building

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Authors: Huda Arshadlamphon

Abstract:

Advancing frontiers of technology and industry is moving rapidly fast influenced by the economic and political phenomena. One vital phenomenon,which has had consolidated the world to a one single village, is Globalization. In response, architecture and the built-environment have faced numerous changes, adjustments, and developments. Tall-buildings, as a product of globalization, represent prestigious icons, symbols, and landmarks for highly economics and advanced countries. Despite the fact, this trend has been encountering several design challenges incorporating architectural identity, traditions, and characteristics that enhance the built-environments' sociocultural values and traditions. The necessity of these values and traditionsform self-solitarily, leading to visual and spatial creativity, independency, and individuality. In other words, they maintain the inherited identity and avoid replications in all means and aspects. This paper, firstly, defines globalization phenomenon, architectural identity, and the concerns of sociocultural values in relation to the traditional characteristics of the built-environment. Secondly, through three case-studies of tall-buildings located in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia, the Queen's Building, the National Commercial Bank Building (NCB), and the Islamic Development Bank Building; design strategies and methodologies in acclimating architectural identity and characteristics in tall-buildings are discussed. The case-studies highlight buildings' sites and surroundings, concepts and inspirations, design elements, architectural forms and compositions, characteristics, issues, barriers, and trammels facing the designs' decisions, representation of facades, and selection of materials and colors. Furthermore, the research will elucidate briefs of the dominant factors that shape the architectural identity of Jeddah city. In conclusion, the study manifests four tall-buildings' design standards guideline in preserving and developing architectural identity in Jeddah city; the scale of urban and natural environment, the scale of architectural design elements, the integration of visual images, and the creation of spatial scenes and scenarios. The prosed guideline will encourage the development of architectural identity aligned with zeitgeist demands and requirements, supports the contemporary architectural movement toward tall-buildings, and shoresself-solitarily in representing sociocultural values and traditions of the built-environment.

Keywords: architectural identity, built-environment, globalization, sociocultural values and traditions, tall-buildings

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Authors: Theresa N. Uzor

Abstract:

The word cardiovascular fitness is a topic of much interest to people of Nigeria, especially during this time, some heart diseases run in families. Cardiovascular fitness is the ability of the heart and lungs to supply-rich blood to the working muscle tissues. This type of fitness is a health-related component of physical fitness that is brought about by sustained physical activity such as plyometric training. Plyometric is a form of advanced fitness training that uses fast muscular contractions to improve power and speed in the sports performance by coaches and athletes. Plyometric training involves a rapid stretching of muscle (eccentric phase) immediately followed by a concentric or shortening action of the same muscle and connective tissue. However, the most basic example of true plyometric training is running and can be safe for a wide variety of populations. This paper focused on building cardiovascular health through Plyometric Training. The centre focus of the article is cardiovascular fitness and plyometric training with factors of cardiovascular fitness. Plyometric training at any age provides multiple benefits even beyond weight control and weight loss, decrease the risk of cardiovascular diseases, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other diseases, among other benefits of plyometric training to cardiovascular fitness. Participation in plyometric training will increase metabolism of an individual, thereby burning more calories even when at rest and reduces weight is also among the benefits of plyometric training. Some guidelines were recommended for planning plyometric training programme to minimise the chance of injury. With plyometric training in Nigeria, fortune can change for good, especially now that there has been an increase in cardiovascular diseases within the society for great savings would be saved.

Keywords: aerobic, cardiovascular, concentric, stretch-shortening cycle, plyometric

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Authors: Michalis Michael, Mauro Overend

Abstract:

Buildings, in which we spend 87-90% of our time, act as a shelter protecting us from environmental conditions and weather phenomena. The building's overall performance is significantly dependent on the envelope’s glazing part, which is particularly critical as it is the most vulnerable part to heat gain and heat loss. However, conventional glazing technologies have relatively low-performance thermo-optical characteristics. In this regard, during winter, the heat losses due to the glazing part of a building envelope are significantly increased as well as the heat gains during the summer period. In this study, the contribution of an innovative glazing technology, namely Closed Cavity Façade (CCF) in improving energy efficiency and IEQ in office buildings is examined, aiming to optimize various design configurations of CCF. Using Energy Plus and IDA ICE packages, the performance of several CCF configurations and geometries for various climate types were investigated, aiming to identify the optimum solution. The model used for the simulations and optimization process was MATELab, a recently constructed outdoor test facility at the University of Cambridge (UK). The model was previously experimentally calibrated. The study revealed that the use of CCF technology instead of conventional double or triple glazing leads to important benefits. Particularly, the replacement of the traditional glazing units, used as the baseline, with the optimal configuration of CCF led to a decrease in energy consumption in the range of 18-37% (depending on the location). This mainly occurs due to integrating shading devices in the cavity and applying proper glass coatings and control strategies, which lead to improvement of thermal transmittance and g-value of the glazing. Since the solar gain through the façade is the main contributor to energy consumption during cooling periods, it was observed that a higher energy improvement is achieved in cooling-dominated locations. Furthermore, it was shown that a suitable selection of the constituents of a closed cavity façade, such as the colour and type of shading devices and the type of coatings, leads to an additional improvement of its thermal performance, avoiding overheating phenomena and consequently ensuring temperatures in the glass cavity below the critical value, and reducing the radiant discomfort providing extra benefits in terms of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ).

Keywords: building energy efficiency, closed cavity façade, optimization, occupants comfort

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Authors: Rene Davids

Abstract:

Urban undergrounds spaces such as parking garages or metro stations are perceived as interludes before reaching desired destinations, as commodities devoid of aesthetic value. Within the encoded space of the city, commercial underground spaces are the closest expression to pure to structures of consumption and commodity. Even in the house, the cellar is associated with castoffs and waste or, as scholar Mircea Eliade has pointed out at best, with a place to store abandoned household and childhood objects, which lie forgotten and on rediscovery evoke a nostalgic and uncanny sense of the past. Despite a growing body of evidence presented by an increasing number of buildings situated entirely below or semi underground that feature exemplary spatial and sensuous qualities, critics and scholars see them largely as efforts to produce efforts in producing low consumption non-renewable energy. Buildings that also free space above ground. This critical approach neglects to mention and highlight other project drivers such as the notion that the ground and sky can be considered a building’s fundamental context, that underground spaces are conducive to the exploration of pure space, namely an architecture that doesn’t have to deal with facades and or external volumes and that digging into geology can inspire the textural and spatial richness. This paper will argue that while the assessment about the reduced energy consumption of underground construction is important, it does not do justice to the qualities underground buildings can contribute to a city’s expanded urban and or landscape experiences.

Keywords: low non-renewable energy consumption, pure space, underground buildings, urban and landscape experience

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Authors: A. Iaaly, O. Jadayel, R. Jadayel

Abstract:

This paper explores the effectiveness of approaches used for the implementation of technology within central governments specifically Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It examines the extent to which various strategies to GIS implementation and its roll out to users within an organization is crucial for its long term assimilation. Depending on the contextual requirements, various implementation strategies exist spanning from the most revolutionary to the most evolutionary, which have an influence on the success of GIS projects and the realization of resulting business benefits within the central governments. This research compares between two strategies of GIS implementation within the Lebanese Municipalities. The first strategy is the “Technological Approach” which is focused on technology acquisition, overlaid on existing governmental frameworks. This approach gives minimal attention to capability building and the long term sustainability of the implemented program. The second strategy, referred to as the “Ecological Approach”, is naturally oriented to the function of the organization. This approach stresses on fostering the evolution of the program and on building the human capabilities. The Union of the Joumeh Municipalities will be presented as a case study under the “Ecological Approach” and the role of the GIS Center at the University of Balamand will be highlighted. Thus, this research contributes to the development of knowledge on technology implementation and the vital role of academia in the specific context of the Lebanese public sector so that this experience may pave the way for further applications.

Keywords: ecological approach GIS, low income countries, technological approach

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Authors: Zhihua Yu, Qi Zhang, Mingyu Zhang, Haolong Dai

Abstract:

Distributed fiber-optic vibration sensors are gaining extensive attention, for the advantages of high sensitivity, accurate location, light weight, large-scale monitoring, good concealment, and etc. In this paper, a novel optical fiber distributed vibration sensing system is proposed, which is based on self-interference of Rayleigh backscattering with phase generated carrier (PGC) demodulation algorithm. Pulsed lights are sent into the sensing fiber and the Rayleigh backscattering light from a certain position along the sensing fiber would interfere through an unbalanced Michelson Interferometry (MI) to generate the interference light. An improved PGC demodulation algorithm is carried out to recover the phase information of the interference signal, which carries the sensing information. Three vibration events were applied simultaneously to different positions over 2000m sensing fiber and demodulated correctly. Experiments show that the spatial resolution of is 10 m, and the noise level of the Φ-OTDR system is about 10-3 rad/√Hz, and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is about 30.34dB. This vibration measurement scheme can be applied at surface, seabed or downhole for vibration measurements or distributed acoustic sensing (DAS).

Keywords: fiber optics sensors, Michelson interferometry, MI, phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry, Φ-OTDR, phase generated carrier, PGC

Procedia PDF Downloads 189

Authors: R. Hellmuth, F. Wehner

Abstract:

Factory planning has the task of designing products, plants, processes, organization, areas, and the construction of a factory. The requirements for factory planning and the building of a factory have changed in recent years. Regular restructuring is becoming more important in order to maintain the competitiveness of a factory. Restrictions in new areas, shorter life cycles of product and production technology as well as a VUCA world (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity) lead to more frequent restructuring measures within a factory. A digital factory model is the planning basis for rebuilding measures and becomes an indispensable tool. Short-term rescheduling can no longer be handled by on-site inspections and manual measurements. The tight time schedules require up-to-date planning models. Due to the high adaptation rate of factories described above, a methodology for rescheduling factories on the basis of a modern digital factory twin is conceived and designed for practical application in factory restructuring projects. The focus is on rebuild processes. The aim is to keep the planning basis (digital factory model) for conversions within a factory up to date. This requires the application of a methodology that reduces the deficits of existing approaches. The aim is to show how a digital factory model can be kept up to date during ongoing factory operation. A method based on photogrammetry technology is presented. The focus is on developing a simple and cost-effective solution to track the many changes that occur in a factory building during operation. The method is preceded by a hardware and software comparison to identify the most economical and fastest variant. 

Keywords: digital factory model, photogrammetry, factory planning, restructuring

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Authors: Rit M., Girard R., Villot J., Thorel M.

Abstract:

In a scenario of extensive residential housing renovation, stakeholders need models that support decision-making through a deep understanding of the existing building stock and accurate energy demand simulations. To address this need, we have modified an optimization model using open data that enables the study of renovation strategies at both territorial and national scales. This approach provides (1) a definition of a strategy to simplify decision trees from theoretical combinations, (2) input to decision makers on real-world renovation constraints, (3) more reliable identification of energy-saving measures (changes in technology or behaviour), and (4) discrepancies between currently planned and actually achieved strategies. The main contribution of the studies described in this document is the geographic scale: all residential buildings in the areas of interest were modeled and simulated using national data (geometries and attributes). These buildings were then renovated, when necessary, in accordance with the environmental objectives, taking into account the constraints applicable to each territory (number of renovations per year) or at the national level (renovation of thermal deficiencies (Energy Performance Certificates F&G)). This differs from traditional approaches that focus only on a few buildings or archetypes. This model can also be used to analyze the evolution of a building stock as a whole, as it can take into account both the construction of new buildings and their demolition or sale. Using specific case studies of French territories, this paper highlights a significant discrepancy between the strategies currently advocated by decision-makers and those proposed by our optimization model. This discrepancy is particularly evident in critical metrics such as the relationship between the number of renovations per year and achievable climate targets or the financial support currently available to households and the remaining costs. In addition, users are free to seek optimizations for their building stock across a range of different metrics (e.g., financial, energy, environmental, or life cycle analysis). These results are a clear call to re-evaluate existing renovation strategies and take a more nuanced and customized approach. As the climate crisis moves inexorably forward, harnessing the potential of advanced technologies and data-driven methodologies is imperative.

Keywords: residential housing renovation, MILP, energy demand simulations, data-driven methodology

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Authors: Victor Bodell, Lukas Ekstrom, Somayeh Aghanavesi

Abstract:

Fuel consumption (FC) is one of the key factors in determining expenses of operating a heavy-duty vehicle. A customer may therefore request an estimate of the FC of a desired vehicle. The modular design of heavy-duty vehicles allows their construction by specifying the building blocks, such as gear box, engine and chassis type. If the combination of building blocks is unprecedented, it is unfeasible to measure the FC, since this would first r equire the construction of the vehicle. This paper proposes a machine learning approach to predict FC. This study uses around 40,000 vehicles specific and o perational e nvironmental c onditions i nformation, such as road slopes and driver profiles. A ll v ehicles h ave d iesel engines and a mileage of more than 20,000 km. The data is used to investigate the accuracy of machine learning algorithms Linear regression (LR), K-nearest neighbor (KNN) and Artificial n eural n etworks (ANN) in predicting fuel consumption for heavy-duty vehicles. Performance of the algorithms is evaluated by reporting the prediction error on both simulated data and operational measurements. The performance of the algorithms is compared using nested cross-validation and statistical hypothesis testing. The statistical evaluation procedure finds that ANNs have the lowest prediction error compared to LR and KNN in estimating fuel consumption on both simulated and operational data. The models have a mean relative prediction error of 0.3% on simulated data, and 4.2% on operational data.

Keywords: artificial neural networks, fuel consumption, friedman test, machine learning, statistical hypothesis testing

Procedia PDF Downloads 178