Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Building performance assessment system'

The aim of this thesis was to develop a methodology to systematically investigate the effect of different procurement options on the outcome of a construction project. This methodology combined the qualitative analysis based on experts' performance assessment of each procurement option with quantitative analyses of generic process models for each option, in order to perform a comprehensive analysis of different procurement alternatives. This methodology was further applied to the specific problem of this research which was to assess the performance of Commissioning Delivery Systems (CDS). The goal was to use the findings from the study to provide a comparison between CDS, and assist Construction Owners in identifying the appropriate commissioning delivery option for their project. The process of each CDS was modeled, and systematic differences between different options were analyzed. Five major internal performance aspects of the commissioning process were identified based on literature: PAi1: Communication; PAi2: Validation; PAi3: Collaboration; PAi4: Integration; and PAi5: Integrity. These performance aspects were used as a basis for a Delphi study to obtain commissioning experts assessment of each CDS. Fourteen experts, representing different disciplines in the construction industry, participated in three phases of the Delphi study. A statistical measure was used to validate the expert performance assessments by measuring their level of consensus. Experts did not show any agreement on two performance aspects of Communication and Integration. These aspects were further investigated through quantitative analyses of process models. The developed methodology proved to be a valuable technique in analyzing the effect of procurement options on the outcome of a construction project. Based on the findings of the study, Owner-led Commissioning presented a higher performance rating than Designer-led Commissioning in four out of five performance aspects. Hence, Owner-led Commissioning is identified as a better alternative for procuring commissioning services on construction projects. Designer-led Commissioning presented a higher Communication performance than Owner-led Commissioning. At the same time, the Communication performance of both delivery options was very poor, which further indicates communication difficulties in current commissioning practices. Therefore, this study suggests a more-thorough investigation of the Communication aspect of commissioning process as a follow-up investigation.

The main questions today concerning thermal systems are their economical and environmental impacts. These entities are generally, at present, assessed on the basis of operation performances of newly installed/designed systems, during an assumed lifetime period. While this is the common way of perceiving thermal systems, performance-over-time will change as an effect of degradation, and not solely of different operation scenarios. How and to what extent is the question that needs assessing in order to evaluate if these changes will jeopardise the intended system performance requirement, hence service life (SL). The lack of knowledge/approaches and tools for assessing durability and performance-over-time of thermal systems complicates the task of incorporating these aspects in engineering. In turn, this pro-active assessment and analysis is in line with today’s performance based directives, laws and regulations; of which the working life is an essential part. The durability of materials, components and systems is not a topic that is an end in itself, but becomes a vital part in a comprehensive perspective as sustainability. The lifetime performance assessment of thermal systems, as presented in this thesis, shows that it is a vital part of the R&D in the quest of sustainable energy/thermal systems and energy use. This thesis gives knowledge to the thermal (energy) system/technology R&D and engineering sector, regarding durability and lifetime performance assessment methodologies; but also to the durability of construction works sector, regarding the needs for assessing lifetime performance of materials and components in relation to system performance. It also presents descriptions of requirements on construction works. Specifically, the studies presented in the thesis show how durability and lifetime performance assessment of thermal systems may be sought, with knowledge on: methodologies, exposure test set-ups, modelling and the attainment and use of adequate tools. The main focus is on performance-over-time modelling, tying material/component degradation to altered thermal performance, thereby attaining performance-over-time assessment tools to be used in order to incorporate these aspects when engineering thermal systems; hence enabling the forecasting of SL. The presented work was predominantly done in association to the EU project ENDOHOUSING. The project developed a solar-assisted heat pump system solution, with heat storage, to provide the thermal energy to meet space heating, cooling and hot water requirements for domestic houses in different regions of the EU. The project constituted the platform for the work presented in this thesis, thereby outlining the main context with studies on durability and lifetime performance of: flat plate solar collectors ground heat sources/storages and interaction with a heat pump system evaluation of the ENDOHOUSING solar-assisted heat pump system The thesis also presents a study of SL prediction and estimation of district heating distribution networks (an additional thermal system application). In this particular context, the Factor Method is proposed as a methodology. The main issue of lifetime performance of thermal systems is how and to what extent performance reduction in individual materials or components influence the overall system performance, as the essence of energy/thermal system sustainability is system performance.
QC 20100810

The main questions concerning energy technologies today are their economical and environmental impacts. These entities are (at the present) assessed on the basis that operations proceed as newly installed/designed systems, during an assumed working life period. While this is the common way of perceiving energy systems, performance-over-time will change as an effect of (e.g. material) degradation and not solely of different operation scenarios. How and to what extent, is the question that needs assessing in order to evaluate if these changes will jeopardise the intended system performance requirement. In turn, this pro-active assessment and analysis is in line with today’s performance based directives, laws, regulations and concepts; of which the working life is an essential part.

The main context of the thesis, is a contribution to the Research and Development (R&D) topic on life performance of energy technologies, with papers on a literature review and case study on two system parts: solar collector and ground heat exchanger (borehole); within the energy technology area of combined solar energy technologies/systems utilised in buildings. The thesis specifically presents a general description of requirements on constructed works and their material, components and systems. It also gives an insight to the energy technology R&D and engineering sector, regarding durability and service life assessment methodologies; and also to the durability of constructed works sector, regarding the needs for assessing material degradation in relation to system performance. The case studies presented in the thesis, show how durability of energy technologies may be sought-after, as well as specific knowledge and useful tools, methodologies and test setups for assessing long-term performance of combined solar energy technologies (in this case a solar-assisted heat pump system utilising a building integrated Unglazed Solar Collector and energy storage).

The utilisation of solar collectors and heat pumps (primarily for space and domestic tap water heating) has rapidly increased in Sweden during the last decades. Sweden has today the largest heat pump market in Europe. During recent years, there has also been an increased interest in heating systems that combine heat pumps with solar collectors (glazed and unglazed) and energy storages; with the aim of attaining a system that provides higher energy and greater economical performances than individual solar collector or heat pump systems. If these systems are to be successful they must be economically feasible; placing emphasis on the cost, durability and performance of the system.

The main issue on life performance of energy technologies is how and to what extent, performance reduction in individual materials and components influences the overall system performance; as the essence of energy system sustainability is system performance.

Provision of an understanding of the complexes and implications associated with building performance measurement in relation to supporting the organizational objectives by Tanzania facility managers. The study involved the use of questionnaire sent to both public and private organizations and literature reviews in Tanzania with the aim of developing the process associated with the assessment of building performance and the way to improve its operational processes. The study observed that BPM practices are affected by managers control over the buildings facilites because there are no specific procedures that guide the formation of BPM process due to lack of Government attention to this growing industry. The other major finding of the study is that managers concentrate mostly on the financial performance instead of the operational performance of the building, which was contrary to the expectation of this study.

An importantmatter in the field of building physics is the questioning of how wellbuildings sustain ageing, and how their overall efficiency evolves over their lifetime.Many causes for degradation are carried by moisture transfer through these porousmaterials. Indeed, infiltratedwatermay transport chemicals, altermechanical properties,and cause freeze thaw damage or mould development. It may also affect thermalproperties and energetic efficiency, as well as the health and comfort of the occupants.The understanding of how moisture transfer properties evolve during the lifespan ofbuildingmaterials is however far fromcomplete. The pore structure of amaterial itselfmay change over time, or be altered by cracks and defects caused bymechanical loadingand aggravated bymoisture-induced degradation. All sizes of fracturesmay have astrong impact on heat and moisture flow in the building envelope, and their influenceis to be accounted for in any long-termperformance assessment, not only of buildingand building components,but of any built structure in general. A considerable amountof work has already been performed in order to allow predicting the hygrothermal behaviourof buildings over longer periods of time. However, an accurate prediction of allranges of damage in a building component, from microscopic to macroscopic cracks,supposes an extensive knowledge of all damage-inducing, time-varying boundary conditionsof the problem during the simulation time. This also implies high computationalcosts, as well as important needs formaterial characterisation.As a complement to these predictive methods, a new approach was undertaken,combining experimental characterisation of crack patterns and numerical simulationsof coupled heat and moisture transfer. First, a preliminary study was conducted, consistingof measurements of the water vapour permeability of diffusely damaged constructionmaterials.This allowed identifying the experimental and numerical requirementsof the remainder of the work, which aimed at providing measurements of fracturenetwork geometries for their explicitmodelling in heat andmoisture transfer simulations.Digital image correlation and acoustic emission monitoring were then performedduring the degradation of cementitiousmaterials, in order to obtain quantitativedata on crack pattern geometries, and to assess the possibilities for damagemonitoringat the building scale. The optical technique, along with an appropriate imageprocessing procedure, was found suitable for providing precisemeasurements of fracturenetworks. Amethodwas also proposed for the interpretation of acoustic emissionrecordings in terms of damage quantification, localisation and identification.Then, a newmodel for coupled heat andmoisturemodelling in cracked porousmediawas developed, that allows including such measurements of fracture patterns intoa finite element mesh, and simulating flow accordingly. This model was validated onthe basis of experimentalmeasurements: digital image correlationwas performed duringthe fracturing of concrete samples, in which moisture uptake was then monitoredusing X-ray radiography. A good accordance was found between experimental and numericalresults in terms of 2-dimensional moisture concentration distributions. The validated code was then used for the simulation of test cases, in order to assess the hygrothermalperformance of damagedmulti-layered building components subjected toreal climatic conditions. The consequences of fractures on themoisture accumulationin walls, on the amplitude of sorption/desorption cycles and on the thermal performance,were observed.

In the seismic design of reinforced concrete frames, plastic hinges are allocated to beams such that a ductile beam-sway mechanism will form in preference to other less ductile mechanisms in the event of a major earthquake. This is achieved by ensuring that the flexural strength of columns is greater than that corresponding to the maximum likely flexural strength of beam plastic hinges. Recent experimental studies in New Zealand have shown that elongation of ductile beam plastic hinges, and its interaction with nearby floor slab containing precast-prestressed floor units, increases the strength of beams much more than that specified in New Zealand and American Concrete standards. This level of strength enhancement has raised concern on the adequacy of the current design provisions. To further investigate this problem, a research project was initiated to examine the strength of beam plastic hinges in reinforced concrete frames containing precast-prestressed floor units. In this research, the strength of beam plastic hinges was assessed through experimental and analytical studies. A three-dimensional, one-storey, two-bay reinforced concrete moment resisting frame with prestressed floor units and cast-in-situ concrete topping was tested under quasi-static displacement-controlled cyclic loading. The experimental results provided insight into the mechanics associated with frame-floor interaction. Subsequently, improved design specifications were proposed based on the observed behaviour. To analytically predict the beam-floor interaction, a ductile reinforced concrete plastic hinge multi-spring element was developed and validated with experimental results from cantilever beam and frame sub-assembly tests reported in the literature. The comparisons have demonstrated the ability of the proposed plastic hinge element to predict the flexural, shear, axial, and most importantly, elongation response of ductile plastic hinges. The proposed plastic hinge element was implemented into an analytical model to simulate the behaviour of the frame-floor sub-assembly tested in this research. Specially arranged truss-like elements were used to model the linking slab (the region connecting the main beam to the first prestressed floor unit), where significant inelastic behaviour was expected to occur. The analytical model was found to be capable of predicting the non-linear hysteretic response and the main deformation mechanisms in the frame-floor sub-assembly test. The analytical frame-floor model developed in this study was used to examine the effect of different structural arrangements on the cyclic behaviour of frames containing prestressed floor units. These analyses indicated that slab reinforcement content, the number of bays in a frame and the position of frame in a building (i.e., perimeter or internal frame) can have a significant influence on the strength and elongation response of plastic hinges.

This thesis relates to a number of connected initiatives, which over a 20 plus year period assisted design professionals to transfer building energy and environmental simulation technologies from the domain of specialists to routine use in practice. It is written in the context of worldwide concerns relating to climate change, energy profligacy and depleting reserves of finite resources, from fossil fuels to materials, and associated legislative measures relating to the environmental impact of the construction industry. The research conjectured and tested mechanisms, including performance assessment methods, quality assurance procedures and knowledge transfer, in order to encourage and support the uptake of simulation in design practice and to progress the embedding of the technology as a routine design process activity in Scottish energy sector and construction businesses. By assisting the uptake of simulation within the professions, the reported work has allowed construction sector businesses to transform existing work practices and in the process to make a significant, measurable contribution to carbon reduction targets over the last 20 years. Moreover, the work illustrates how the creation of support networks and an integrated, partnership approach between academia and practice can break down barriers to use in practices and increase the effectiveness of the transfer of new technologies resulting in cumulative positive environmental impacts that go significantly beyond the benefits of individual interventions. This conclusion is borne out by independent monitoring of the reported activities.

En France, le secteur du bâtiment est le plus grand consommateur d'énergie et représente environ 43% de la consommation totale d'énergie. L'isolation thermique dans le bâtiment est nécessaire afin d'améliorer son efficacité énergétique. Dans certains pays dont la France, la rénovation des bâtiments occupe une place essentielle dans la stratégie de transition énergétique. La stratégie mise en place consiste donc à renforcer l'isolation thermique des enveloppes de bâtiment et ceci en perdant le moins de surface habitable possible. Ceci justifie le fait de développer et de mettre en œuvre à l'avenir des matériaux super isolants comme les aérogels. Les objectifs de cette étude sont d'examiner le comportement thermique des bâtiments et d'étudier l'amélioration possible de leur efficacité énergétique en utilisant un nouvel enduit isolant à base d'aérogels de silice et ainsi que l'énergie solaire. Tout d'abord, la performance thermique et hygrothermique des murs extérieurs est étudiée afin de trouver la meilleure structure de ces murs. Deuxièmement, nous étudions l'évolution du confort thermique et du comportement énergétique des maisons en adoptant le nouvel enduit isolant comme isolation extérieure. Cette évolution a aussi été représentée par un modèle mathématique. On a comparé les résultats obtenus à l'aide de ces modèles avec les mesures expérimentales faites sur une maison récemment construite. Enfin, le potentiel de réduction de la charge de chauffage en adoptant un système actif dans la paroi est analysé. Ce système est proposé pour capter une partie de l'énergie solaire qui tombe sur la façade sud et qui est disponible pendant les journées non nuageuses en hiver, et la transférer vers la façade nord par l'intermédiaire de canalisations d'eau intégrées dans l'enduit isolant objet de l'étude
In France, the building sector is the largest consumer of energy and accounts for about 43% of the total energy consumption. The building sector offers significant potential for improved energy efficiency through the use of high-performance insulation and energy-efficient systems. For existing buildings, renovation has a high priority in France because these buildings represent a high proportion of energy consumption and they will be present for decades to come. Nowadays, there is a growing interest in the so-called super-insulating materials, such as Aerogels. The objectives of this study are to examine the thermal behavior of buildings and to foster energy efficiency through the use of a newly developed aerogel-based insulating coating as well as the use of renewable energy sources, specifically solar energy. Firstly, the thermal and hygrothermal performance of exterior walls having different layer composition structures are examined. Secondly, the heating energy demand as well as the risk of summer overheating is examined for different construction periods and under different climates. Also, a mathematical model is built and compared to experimental measurement of a recently built full-scale house. Finally, the potential to decrease the heating load by adopting a closed wall loop system is scrutinized. The latter is a proposed system to capture some of the solar energy falling on the south facade available during non-cloudy winter days and transfer it to the north facade through water pipes embedded in the aerogel-based coating

Reliable evaluation methods is needed to ensure that investments in energy conservation measures (ECMs) and the construction of new energy efficient buildings lives up to the promised and expected performance. This thesis presents and evaluates a regression method for estimation of influential building parameters: transmission losses above ground (including air leakage), ground heat loss, and overall heat loss coefficient. The analysis is conducted with separately metered electricity, heating and weather data using linear regression models based on the simplified steady-state power balance for a whole building. The evaluation consists of analyzing the robustness of the extracted parameters, their suitability to be used as input values to building energy simulations (BES) tools. In addition, differences between uncalibrated and calibrated BES models are analyzed when they are used to calculate energy savings. Finally the suitability of using a buildings overall heat loss coefficient as a performance verification tool is studied. The presented regression method exhibits high robustness and good agreement with theory. Knowledge of these parameters also proved beneficial in BES calibration procedures as well as in performance verifications. Thus, the presented method shows promising features for reliable energy performance assessments of buildings.

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Rorschach Performance Assessment System – R-PAS – was developed based on recent empirical evidence, as a solution for limitations identified in the Rorscharch Method. In this Doctorate thesis, divided in four sections, it was approached the psychometric basis of Rorschach and R-PAS, and provided an adaptation of this new system for the Brazilian society. In Section I, it was analyzed national and international scientific productions from the past eleven years (2006-2016) about the norms of Rorscharch for children, from the databases Scielo, Pepsic, PsycNet, Clinical Key, Science Direct, and the online platform Taylor & Francis. It was identified a total of 14 studies which results showed a prevalence of international researchs about the standard performance in children from various cultures. Section II is an empirical reliability study between two raters from the same research group and between two different groups considering protocols applied by R-PAS. It was randomly selected 86 protocols of children aged between 7-14 years old, from public and private schools. Results were based on the calculation of the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) for 60 variables of the test and the Development Index (DI). The correlation indexes were considered excelent for 100% of the intragrupe analysis and 86,7% for the extragrupe analysis. The results are in agreement with studies that showed that the reliability of raters of the same group are generally higher than that of raters from different groups. Section III is an empirical study dedicated to the investigation of the differences in the performance due to gender in Rorschach, using the R-PAS from 170 girls and 183 boys aged between 7-14 years old, in public and private schools, utilizing 60 variables from the new system. The results showed similar performance between the sexs, but with evident distinctions in the cognitive scope, management of stress and interpersonal area. The most prominent differences and with larger effects were noted for participants aged 13-14 years old. With the same sample, Section IV is an empiric study that aims to present standard performance of 353 non-patient children for 60 variables of R-PAS and the DI. 24 variables and the DI showed significant differences, with a big effect and significant correlations among children in different group of ages (G1, 7-9 years old; G2, 10-12 years old; G3, 13-14 years old). It was observed that as the chronological age increases there is a sophistication of the perceptive processes of cognition, autoperception, interpersonal perception, affects and stress management, thus, increasing the psychological maturity. The four sections of this thesis provide important psychometric properties of Rorschach and R-PAS in children. These represent an advance in the scientific consolidation of this instrument and of the system in Brazil, qualifies the nomothetic evaluation of the data and the clinical interpretation obtained with this technique.
O Rorschach Performance Assessment System – R-PAS (Sistema de Avaliação do Desempenho do Rorschach) foi desenvolvido a partir de um corpo de pesquisas empíricas recentes, buscando solucionar limitações identificadas no Método de Rorschach. A presente tese de Doutorado, organizada em quatro seções, tem como objetivo abordar questões referentes às bases psicométricas do Rorschach e do R-PAS, bem como contribuir para a adaptação do novo sistema no Brasil. Na Seção I foi analisada a produção científica nacional e internacional dos últimos onze anos (2006-2016) sobre a normatização do Rorschach para crianças nas seguintes bases de dados: Scielo, Pepsic, PsycNet, Clinical Key, Science Direct, e na plataforma on-line Taylor & Francis. Foi levantado um total de 14 artigos em cujos resultados evidenciou-se a prevalência de pesquisas internacionais sobre o desempenho padrão de crianças provenientes de diversas culturas. A Seção II consiste em uma pesquisa empírica de fidedignidade entre dois avaliadores de um mesmo grupo de pesquisa e dois de grupos diferentes considerando protocolos aplicados segundo o R-PAS. Foram selecionados aleatoriamente 86 protocolos de crianças na faixa etária de 7- 14 anos, de escolas públicas e privadas. Os resultados foram baseados no cálculo do Coeficiente de Correlação Intraclasses (ICC) de 60 variáveis do teste e do Índice de Desenvolvimento (ID). Os índices de correlação foram considerados excelentes em 100% das análises intragrupo e 86,7% das análises extragrupo. Os resultados corroboram pesquisas nas quais se constatou que a fidedignidade entre avaliadores de um mesmo grupo tende a ser maior do que entre os avaliadores de diferentes grupos. A Seção III consistiu em um artigo empírico dedicado à investigação de diferenças de desempenho em função do sexo no Rorschach por meio do R-PAS de 170 meninas e 183 meninos entre 7 e 14 anos, de escolas públicas e privadas, em 60 variáveis do novo sistema. Os resultados indicaram funcionamento semelhante entre os sexos para a maioria das variáveis, mas destacaram-se distinções nos âmbitos cognitivo, de manejo do estresse e interpessoal. As diferenças mais salientes e com tamanhos de efeito maiores foram notadas para os participantes de 13 e 14 anos. Com a mesma amostra, a Seção IV consistiu em um estudo empírico com o objetivo de apresentar o desempenho padrão de 353 crianças não-pacientes para 60 variáveis do R-PAS e o ID. 24 variáveis e o ID exibiram diferenças estatísticas significativas, com tamanhos de efeito grandes e correlações também significativas entre as crianças de diferentes faixas etárias (G1, de 7-9 anos; G2, de 10-12 anos; G3, de 13-14 anos). Notou-se que à medida que aumenta a idade cronológica ocorre a sofisticação dos processos perceptivos no âmbito da cognição, autopercepção, percepção interpessoal, afetos e manejo do estresse, e, consequentemente, aumento da maturidade psicológica. De maneira geral, as quatro seções da tese indicam importantes propriedades psicométricas do Rorschach e do R-PAS em crianças. Tal esforço avança na consolidação científica do instrumento e do sistema no Brasil, qualifica a leitura nomotética dos dados e as interpretações clínicas realizadas com esta técnica.

Buildings are considered to be one of the primary contributors to the socioeconomic development of a country. However, they use a large portion of energy and available natural resources. With the industrialization leading to an increase in urban population, the number of urban buildings which has major effects on energy consumption, has significantly increased. Even with the implementation of energy efficient policies, energy consumption in buildings has regularly grown over the last decades affecting the building's operating cost. For this reason, the construction industry seeks to create a model of sustainable development in buildings which has low environmental impact and high economic and social gains. Currently, most of the world population is gathered in buildings mainly placed in urban areas. Unfortunately, a big part of these buildings are badly constructed without or with unsuitable insulation on the building envelope, and without any heating system. After some decades in use, these buildings suffer from an unacceptable interior living environment due to the unappropriated building envelope solution. This practice causes energy losses through the façades and roofs while producing low interior comfort inside the building, as well as health problems to the occupants. Therefore, nowadays the building industry is concerned with designing new construction solutions with novel components and geometries which are able to face the current energy inefficiency in buildings. The TCP is a novel energy efficient building envelope construction solution which is capable of channeling the sunlight through the opaque part of the walls. Its versatility is based on its capacity for concentrating and scattering daylight into the building's interior while achieving energy savings, i.e. reducing dependence on artificial lighting and also improving the occupant's interior comfort. The complexity of this novel construction solution comes from the physical behavior and geometry of its components, i.e. the Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) and the Optical Fiber (OF). Currently, there is no software in the market that can simulate the daylight transmission of the CPCs and the OFs. In addition, there are no daylight metrics able to properly assess the daylight performance of the TCP. In this sense, this research considered this TCP innovative to give answers to the aforementioned problems. In fact, the building case study shows how is possible to energy retrofit existing façades and roofs while improving the interior living environment and also reducing the energy consumption of the heating and/or cooling systems. This confirm the need to urge the construction industry to design and develop novel energy efficient construction solutions, e.g. Translucent Concrete Panel (TCP). The TCP has the capability of daylight permeability in an anidolic way through the opaque parts of the exterior façades and roofs. Due to the nature of traditional building materials blocking the passage of natural light, there is a constant requirement of artificial lighting into the building, even during daytime. On the other side, some of the most commonly used daylight metrics are not precise enough in order to assess the daylight performance of the prototype. For this reason, the research has designed new daylight tests adapted to the TCP daylight features in order to evaluate its daylight performance. In fact, this is the first required step for future research lines that will be based on computer simulations that to rapidly assess influential parameters of the novel building envelope in several building sub-systems and systems.
Els edificis estan considerats els primers contribuïdors del desenvolupament socioeconòmic d’un país. No obstant, utilitzen una gran quantitat d’energia i recursos naturals disponibles. Amb la industrialització, que va donar lloc a un increment de la població urbana, aquest resulta un factor que ha fet augmentar el nombre d’edificis urbans i ha creat un major efecte en el consum energètic. Tot i la implementació de polítiques d’eficiència energètica, el consum energètic ha augmentat durant les ultimes dècades afectant a la despesa operacional de l’edifici. Per aquesta raó, la indústria de la construcció cerca crear models de desenvolupament sostenible en edificis i que tinguin un baix impacte mediambiental i un alt impacte econòmic i guanys socials. Això requereix l’adopció d’un sistema integrat que cobreixi un nombre de característiques tals com reducció energètica, millora de l’ús de materials, la qual cosa inclou l’aigua, reutilització i reciclatge de materials, i emissions de control. Més que mai, a dia d’avui hi ha una creixent preocupació per l’esgotament dels recursos naturals. Per tant, desenvolupament i implementació de noves tecnologies d’energia renovable s’han tornat importants i necessàries per la societat. Des de que la terra rep constantment radiació solar, la qual resulta una font d’energia gratuïta neta i abundant, la utilització de la energia solar en edificis esta agafant força. A dia d’avui, amb les noves tecnologies, la llum solar pot ser emprada per una varietat d’usos, tals com generadora d’electricitat, llum interior natural, escalfadora d’aigua, entre altres. Actualment els nous edificis acostumen a integrar sistemes solars dintre de la part exterior de la envolvent, els quals poden col·lectar grans quantitat d’energia solar. A més a més, els humans hem evolucionat sota la influència de la llum del sol i el cicle llum-foscor mitjançant el desenvolupament d’una varietat d’avantatges psicològics, la qual cosa afecta al caràcter i salut de la gent, així com menor absència del lloc de treball i més alta productivitat. Després de la introducció de la llum elèctrica, la gent va començar a passar més temps dins de l’interior dels edificis. Conseqüentment, el confort tèrmic es va tornar un factor significatiu pels humans amb vistes a desenvolupar una activitat dintre de l’edifici. Així que, una millora en la eficiència energètica dels edificis contribueix al confort interior i la salut dels ocupants. Per aquest motiu, façanes i cobertes multifuncionals estan darrerament guanyant l’atenció del mercat de la construcció a causa de la seva versatilitat en l’estalvi d’energia i la millora en el confort interior de l’edifici. La present recerca pretén cobrir les qüestions comentades amb anterioritat referents a la millora de l’eficiència energètica dels edificis i obtenir, d’aquesta manera, una reducció en consum energètic amb tecnologies innovadores que utilitzen fonts d’energia solar per crear un ambient interior confortable. Per aquest objectiu, la present Tesis s’ha dividit en dos línies de treball. La primera línia de recerca descriu i il·lustra els problemes constructius més habituals durant el cicle de vida de les façanes i cobertes dels edificis construïts amb una solució constructiva de baix rendiment energètic. Per tant, s’ha estudiat un cas real on s’ha rehabilitat energèticament la envolvent exterior d’un edifici plurifamiliar d’habitatge social. Aquesta feina te la intenció entendre la complexitat i els requeriments de la envolvent exterior de l’edifici en termes d’eficiència energètica, juntament amb el confort interior dels ocupants. A través del cas real estudiat, s’ha observat millores significatives en l’estalvi energètic després de la rehabilitació energètica de les façanes i cobertes que dóna lloc a un augment del confort tèrmic interior. El resultat demostra la necessitat que hi ha d’empènyer a la indústria de la construcció de dissenyar i desenvolupar noves envolvents exteriors energèticament eficients tant per noves construccions com per edificis rehabilitats. Una de les solucions novells és el cas del Panell de Formigó Translúcid (Translucent Concrete Panel – TCP). El TCP presenta una nova alternativa passiva el qual redueix el consum energètic tot optimitzant l’entrada de llum solar natural a dintre de l’edifici a través de la tradicional part opaca de les parets exterior de façana i coberta. Això permet la permeabilitat de la llum natural a través de les parets tot millorant el confort tèrmic i lumínic interior. Basada en els resultats obtinguts en la primera línia de recerca, la segona línia només estudia i analitza el comportament de la llum del TCP. Durant les darreres dècades, ciència i indústria han creat diferents sistemes lumínics actius i passius els quals intenten proveir solucions per reduir i alleugerir la ineficiència energètica dels edificis. El TCP es veu com una nova tecnologia constructiva, energèticament eficient, dissenyada per envolvents exteriors, i que té la propietat de resoldre la càrrega energètica de la part opaca de les parets i permetre l’entrada de llum natural. No obstant això, actualment el comportament de la llum dels TCPs no es pot simular per ordinador degut a que no hi ha cap software en el mercat que pugui simular i analitzar les propietats de transmissió de llum dels dos components principals del TCP i que són: Concentrador Solar (Compound Parabolic Concentrator – CPC) i la Fibra Òptica (Optical Fiber – OF). Per tant, nous estudis experimentals han hagut de ser dissenyats amb procediments teòrics. Els tests van tenir lloc a l’exterior sota condicions reals de cel i d’aquesta manera en un futur poder crear i validar programes els quals permetran una fàcil adopció del TCP per part de la indústria. No obstant això, tots els tests van ser dividits en dos categories. El primer buscava demostrar i confirmar que el TCP, amb un disseny apropiat dels seus components i orientació, pot distribuir la llum natural dintre del edifici durant les hores solars. Diferents panells de TCP amb diferents diàmetres i rati de les OF, van ser assajats a l’exterior junt amb panells amb CPCs de diferents geometries. Com els primers resultats van ser òptims, això va ajudar poder moure la recerca a un segon nivell el qual estava principalment centrat en la millora de la quantitat de llum solar capturada amb els CPCs i la quantitat de llum distribuïda amb les OFs dintre de l’edifici. Amb aquest objectiu, la present recerca va proposar modificar els extrems de les OFs amb diferent geometries, i així analitzar-les independentment i alinear-les amb CPCs de diferent geometries. Aquest ha sigut un punt important per l’estudi, degut a que els extrems modificats de la OF són capaços de millorar l’entrada de llum natural a l’interior de l’edifici Per una altra banda, hi ha un gran nombre de diferents sistemes mètrics utilitzats per professionals per avaluar les propietats de la llum dintre d’un espai. Per aquest motiu, tots els tests van ser dissenyat seguint els objectius de la recerca. No obstant això, la present Tesis va decidir dissenyar i construir un Petit Portable Banc de Proves (Small Portable Test Bed – SPTB) per ser utilitzat a l’exterior i el qual té un sistema integrat de control de sensors sense cables i que activament respon als canvis exteriors climàtics durant els tests. El SPTB es una mena de cub el qual vol simular la envolvent exterior de l’edifici amb quatre façanes i coberta. Aquest disseny específic pot permetre analitzar a la vegada les façanes sota les quatre orientacions, juntament amb la coberta. Així que el SPTB va ser concebut com una eina per fer assajos sota condicions reals exteriors. A més a més, gràcies a la versatilitat de la seva estructura, les dimensions del SPTB poden ser canviades en cas necessari. Per la present recerca, el primer objectiu d’aquest banc de proves portable era fer una avaluació justa del comportament de la llum del TCP basat en tests de llum dinàmics. I en segon lloc, el SPTB buscava desenvolupar una eina física per ser utilitzada més enllà de les necessitats de la present recerca, així com en altres projectes i assajos. Pel novell TCP cas d’estudi, el SPTB va ser ubicat a l’exterior i una varietat de petites mostres a escala real de TCPs van ser assajades per analitzar el comportament de la llum sota condicions de cel reals, així com una recopilació de dades les quals eren enviades wireless i emmagatzemades a una base de dades centrals ubicada a internet. Els resultats finals obtinguts en la present Tesis confirmen que utilitzant la tecnologia comentada en aquesta recerca, es demostra que les mesures preses en eficiència energètica, pot millorar el confort interior i la salut dels ocupants. Aquest és el cas de la rehabilitació energètica de la façana utilitzada com a cas d’estudi tot obtenint aproximadament un 12% d’estalvi energètic. Per un altre costat, el TCP equipat amb CPCs, es capaç de dispersar (directa i difusa) llum solar, i d’aquesta manera millorar la distribució lumínica en el interior de l’edifici. La recerca ha millorar la llum capturada i dispersada per les OFs tot modificant la geometria dels extrems de la OF. Amb l’ús del SPTB, ha sigut possible avaluar el comportament de la llum del TCP tot utilitzant sistemes mètrics lumínics dinàmics. No obstant, més recerca experimentals junt amb noves simulacions per ordinador, s’haurien de fer en un futur a fi d’obtenir resultats més concloents en termes d’estalvi energètic i confort tèrmic interior
Los edificios son considerados los primeros contribuyentes al desarrollo socioeconómico de un país. No obstante, utilizan una gran cantidad de la energía y de recursos naturales disponibles. Con la industrialización tuvo lugar un importante incremento de la población urbana y este hecho provocó un aumento del número de edificios urbanos, los cuales provocaron un mayor incremento del consumo energético. A pesar de que se han implementado políticas de eficiencia energética, el consumo energético ha seguido aumentando durante las últimas décadas y ha afectado al gasto operacional del edificio. Por este motivo, la industria de la construcción busca crear modelos de desarrollo sostenible en edificios que tengan un bajo impacto medioambiental, y un alto impacto económico y beneficios sociales. Esto requiere la adopción de un sistema integrado que cubra un número de características, así como reducción energética, mejora del uso de los materiales, incluyendo el agua, reutilización y reciclaje de materiales, y emisiones de control. Más que nunca, a día de hoy, hay una creciente preocupación por el agotamiento de los recursos naturales. Por tanto, desarrollo e implementación de nuevas tecnologías de energía renovable resultan tan importantes y necesarias para la sociedad. Desde que la tierra recibe constantemente radiación solar, la cual es una fuente de energía gratuita, limpia y abundante, el uso de la energía solar en edificios está ganando fuerza. A día de hoy, con las nuevas tecnologías, la luz solar puede ser empleada para una amplia variedad de usos, así como generadora de electricidad, luz interior natural, calentadora de agua, entre otras utilidades. Actualmente, los nuevos edificios acostumbran a integrar sistemas solares dentro de la parte exterior de la envolvente del edificio, los cuales pueden captar gran cantidad de energía solar. Además, los humanos hemos evolucionado bajo la influencia de la luz solar y el ciclo luz-oscuridad. Este hecho ha permitido el desarrollo de una variedad de ventajas psicológicas que afectan al carácter y a la salud de las personas, así como a una menor ausencia del lugar de trabajo y una alta productividad. Tras la aparición de la luz eléctrica, la gente comenzó a pasar más tiempo dentro de los edificios. Consecuentemente, el confort térmico resultó un factor significativo para los humanos en vistas a poder desarrollar una actividad dentro del edificio. Así pues, vemos que una mejora en la eficiencia energética de los edificios contribuye al confort interior y a la salud de los ocupantes. Por este motivo, últimamente, fachadas y cubiertas multifuncionales están ganando la atención del mercado de la construcción debido a su versatilidad en el ahorro de energía y en la mejora del confort interior del edificio. La presente investigación cubre las cuestiones comentadas con anterioridad referentes a la mejora de la eficiencia energética de los edificios, y así obtener una reducción en el consumo energético mediante tecnologías innovadoras que utilizan fuentes de energía solar para crear un ambiente interior confortable. Por este motivo, la presente Tesis está dividida en dos líneas de trabajo. La primera línea de investigación describe e ilustra los problemas constructivos más habituales durante el ciclo de vida de las fachadas y cubiertas de los edificios construidos con una solución constructiva de bajo rendimiento energético. De tal manera, se ha estudiado un caso real en donde se ha rehabilitado energéticamente la envolvente exterior de un edificio plurifamiliar de vivienda social. Este trabajo tiene la intención de ser utilizado como una herramienta para entender la complejidad y los requisitos de la envolvente exterior del edificio en temas de eficiencia energética, junto al confort interior de los ocupantes. A través del caso real estudiado, se han observado mejoras significativas en el ahorro energético después de la rehabilitación energética de las fachadas y cubierta, dando lugar a un aumento del confort térmico interior. El resultado demuestra la necesidad de incitar a la industria de la construcción para que sea capaz de diseñar y desarrollar nuevas envolventes exteriores energéticamente eficientes, tanto en el caso de nuevas construcciones como en el de edificios rehabilitados. Una de las soluciones noveles es el caso del Panel de Hormigón Translucido (Translucent Concrete Panel – TCP). El TCP presenta una nueva alternativa pasiva capaz de reducir el consumo energético del edificio, con la optimización de la entrada de luz solar natural dentro del mismo, a través de la tradicional parte opaca de las paredes exteriores de fachada y cubierta, permitiendo así la permeabilidad de la luz solar a través de las paredes y mejorando el confort térmico y lumínico interior. Basada en los resultados obtenidos en la primera línea de investigación, la segunda línea solamente estudia y analiza el comportamiento de la luz del TCP. Durante las últimas décadas, ciencia e industria han creado diferentes sistemas lumínicos activos y pasivos los cuales intentan proveer soluciones para reducir y aligerar la ineficiencia energética de los edificios. El TCP está considerado como una nueva tecnología constructiva energéticamente eficiente diseñada para envolventes exteriores, y que tiene la propiedad de resolver la carga energética de la parte opaca de las paredes permitiendo así la entrada de luz natural. No obstante, actualmente el comportamiento de la luz de los TCPs no se puede simular por ordenador debido a que no hay ningún software en el mercado que pueda simular y analizar las propiedades de transmisión de luz de los dos componentes principales del TCP que son Concentrador Solar (Compound Parabolic Concentrator – CPC) y la Fibra Óptica (Optical Fiber – OF). Por tanto, los nuevos estudios experimentales han tenido que ser diseñados siguiendo procedimientos teóricos. Los test tuvieron lugar en el exterior bajo condiciones reales de cielo y de esta manera en un futuro poder crear y validar programas los cuales permiten una fácil adopción del TCP por parte de la industria. No obstante, todos los test se dividieron en dos categorías. El primero buscaba demostrar y confirmar que el TCP, con un diseño apropiado de sus componentes y orientación, puede distribuir la luz natural dentro del edificio durante las horas solares. Diferentes paneles de TCP, con diferentes diámetros y ratios de OFs, fueron ensayados en el exterior junto con paneles con CPCs de diferentes geometrías. Dado que los primeros resultados fueron óptimos, se pudo dirigir la investigación a un segundo nivel, principalmente centrado en la mejora de la cantidad de luz solar capturada con los CPCs y la cantidad de luz distribuida con las OFs dentro del edificio. Con este objetivo, la presente investigación propuso modificar geométricamente los extremos de las OFs con diferentes geometrías, y así analizarlas independientemente y alinearlas con CPCs de diferentes geometrías. Este ha sido un punto importante del estudio, debido a que los extremos modificados de las OFs son capaces de mejorar la entrada de luz natural en el interior del edificio. Por otro lado, existe una gran diferencia entre los diferentes sistemas métricos utilizados por los profesionales para evaluar las propiedades de la luz dentro de un espacio. Por este motivo, todos los ensayos fueron diseñados siguiendo los objetivos de la investigación. No obstante, la presente Tesis decidió diseñar y construir un Pequeño Portable Banco de Pruebas (Small Portable Test Bed – SPTB) para ser utilizado en el exterior, el cual tiene un sistema integrado de control de sensores sin cables y que activamente responden a los cambios exteriores climáticos durante los ensayos. El SPTB es una especie de cubo que pretende simular la envolvente exterior del edificio con cuatro fachadas y cubierta. Este diseño específico permite analizar a la vez las fachadas bajo las cuatro orientaciones junto con la cubierta. De hecho, el SPTB fue concebido como una herramienta versátil para realizar ensayos bajo condiciones reales exteriores. Además, gracias a la versatilidad de su estructura, las dimensiones del SPTB pueden ser cambiadas en caso necesario. Para la presente investigación, el primer objetivo de este banco de pruebas era realizar una evaluación justa del comportamiento de la luz del TCP basado en ensayos de luz dinámicos. Y en segundo lugar, el SPTB buscaba desarrollar una herramienta física para ser utilizada más allá de las necesidades de la presente investigación, así como en otros proyectos y ensayos. Para el novel TCP caso de estudio, el SPTB fue ubicado en el exterior y una variedad de pequeñas muestras a escala real de TCPs fueron ensayadas para analizar el comportamiento de la luz bajo condiciones reales del cielo, así como una recopilación de datos los cuales eran enviados Wireless i guardadas a una base de datos centrales ubicado en internet. Los resultados finales obtenidos en la presente Tesis confirman que, utilizando la tecnología comentada en ésta investigación, se demuestra que las medidas tomadas en eficiencia energética pueden mejorar el confort interior y la salud de los ocupantes. Éste es el caso de la rehabilitación energética de la fachada utilizada como casa de estudio donde se obtuvo aproximadamente un 12% de ahorro energético. Por otro lado, el TCP equipado con CPCs, es capaz de dispersar (directa y difusa) luz solar, i de esta manera mejorar la distribución lumínica del interior del edificio. La investigación ha mejorado la luz capturada y dispersada por las OFs gracias a la modificación de los extremos de la OF. Con el uso del SPTB, ha sido posible evaluar el comportamiento de la luz del TCP con la utilización de sistemas métricos lumínicos dinámicos. No obstante, más investigación experimental junto con nuevas simulaciones por ordenador, se tendrían que hacer en un futuro a fin de obtener resultados más concluyentes en términos de ahorro energético y confort térmico interior

The aim of this project was to develop a holistic approach to building-performance assessment without limiting it to energy use (usually expressed in kWh/m2/year), but rather include more parameters that represent the following aspects: Economic, environmental, and quality of service provided to the occupant/client. If it can be shown that buildings can be operated not only in an energy-efficient way, but also in a way that takes into consideration the needs of the occupants, a case could be built that a higher quality of indoor environment does not necessarily mean a higher economic impact. It is also important to show that having access to high-quality building-performance data leads to high-quality analysis and visualisation, and consequently to a chance to detect faults and improve building operation. To answer these questions, a large office building in Stockholm, Sweden was used as a case study. The building was equipped with energy meters and 1,700 sensor points, uniformly distributed over the occupied areas, that measured room temperature, duct temperature, occupancy presence/absence and supply airflow, in addition to other states. The data was processed using RStudio, and various types of visualisation plots were used, including carpet plots, masked scatter plots, bar plots, line graphs, and boxplots. The data pointed to some interesting results. First, just knowing the energy use is not sufficient for understanding the quality of the service provided to the occupants. Second, performing a thorough analysis of room unit data can detect faults. Third, using carpet plots for energy-data visualisation is effective for energy-use pattern recognition. Finally, visualising the building performance parameters in a parallel coordinate plot is a more informative representation of integrated building performance compared to the energy performance certificates typically used today.

QC 20160916

This thesis presents techniques for improving building HVAC system performance in existing buildings generated using simulation-based tools and real data. Therefore, one of the aims has been to research the needs and possibilities to assess and improve building HVAC system performance. In addition, this thesis aims at an advanced utilization of building energy management system (BEMS) and the provision of useful information to building operators using simulation tools.

Buildings are becoming more complex systems with many elements, while BEMS provide many data about the building systems. There are, however, many faults and issues in building performance, but there are legislative and cost-benefit forces induced by energy savings. Therefore, both BEMS and the computer-based tools have to be utilized more efficiently to improve building performance.

The thesis consists of four main parts that can be read separately. The first part explains the term commissioning and the commissioning tool work principal based on literature reviews. The second part presents practical experiences and issues introduced through the work on this study. The third part deals with the computer-based tools application in design and operation. This part is divided into two chapters. The first deals with improvement in the design, and the second deals with the improvement in the control strategies. The last part of the thesis gives several rules for fault diagnosis developed using simulation tools. In addition, this part aims at the practical explanation of the faults in the building HVAC systems.

The practical background for the thesis was obtained though two surveys. The first survey was carried out with the aim to find the commissioning targets in Norwegian building facilities. In that way, an overview of the most typical buildings, HVAC equipment, and their related problems was obtained. An on-site survey was carried out on an example building, which was beneficial for introducing the building maintenance structure and the real hydronic heating system faults.

Coupled simulation and optimization programs (EnergyPlus and GenOpt) were utilized for improving the building performances. These tools were used for improving the design and the control strategies in the HVAC systems. Buildings with a hydronic heating system were analyzed for the purpose of improving the design. Since there are issues in using the optimization tool, GenOpt, a few procedures for different practical problems have been suggested. The optimization results show that the choice of the optimization functions influences significantly the design parameters for the hydronic heating system.

Since building construction and equipment characteristics are changing over time, there is a need to find new control strategies which can meet the actual building demand. This problem has been also elaborated on by using EnergyPlus and GenOpt. The control strategies in two different HVAC systems were analyzed, including the hydronic heating system and the ventilation system with the recovery wheel. The developed approach for the strategy optimization includes: involving the optimization variables and the objective function and developing information flow for handling the optimization process.

The real data obtained from BEMS and the additional measurements have been utilized to explain faults in the hydronic heating system. To couple real data and the simple heat balance model, the procedure for the model calibration by use of an optimization algorithm has been developed. Using this model, three operating faults in the hydronic heating system have been elaborated.

Using the simulation tools EnergyPlus and TRNSYS, several fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) rules have been generated. The FDD rules were established in three steps: testing different faults, calculating the performance indices (PI), and classifying the observed PIs. These rules have been established for the air cooling system and the hydronic heating system. The rules can diagnose the control and the component faults. Finally, analyzing the causes and the effects of the tested faults, useful information for the building maintenance has been descriptively explained.

The most important conclusions are related to a practical connection of the real data and simulation-based tools. For a complete understanding of system faults, it is necessary to provide real-life information. Even though BEMS provides many building data, it was proven that BEMS is not completely utilized. Therefore, the control strategies can always be improved and tuned to the actual building demands using the simulation and optimization tools. It was proven that many different FDD rules for HVAC systems can be generated using the simulation tools. Therefore, these FDD rules can be used as manual instructions for the building operators or as a framework for the automated FDD algorithms.

Denne avhandlingen presenterer noen fremgangsmåter for forbedring av ytelser for VVS-tekniske anlegg i eksisterende bygninger basert på bruk av simuleringsverktøy og virkelige måledata. Ett av målene har vært å undersøke behov og muligheter for vurdering og forbedring av ytelser for VVS-anlegg i bygninger. I tillegg har denne avhandlingen hatt som mål å fremme bruk av SD-anlegg samt å fremskaffe nyttig informasjon til driftspersonalet.

Bygninger blir stadig mer kompliserte systemer som inneholder flere og flere komponenter mens SD-anlegg håndterer en stadig større mengde data fra bygningsinstallasjoner. På den ene siden registreres det ofte feil og problemer med hensyn til ytelsene til de VVS-tekniske installasjonene. På den andre siden innføres det stadig strengere lovmessige pålegg og kost-nyttekrav motivert i energieffektiviseringen. SD-anlegg og databaserte verktøy bør derfor brukes mer effektivt for forbedring av ytelsene.

Avhandlingen består av fire hoveddeler hvor hver del kan leses separat. Den første delen, som er basert på literatturstudie, forklarer funksjonskontroll som begrep og prinsipper for oppbygging av verktøy for funksjonskontroll. Den andre delen presenterer praktisk erfaring og problemstillinger utviklet og behandlet i løpet av arbeidet med avhandlingen. Den tredje delen handler om anvendelse av databaserte verktøy for forbedring av ytelsen for VVS-tekniske installasjoner. Den tredje delen er delt opp i to kapitler, hvorav et handler om forbedring av systemløsninger og et om forbedring av styringsstrategier. Den siste delen presenterer flere regler for feilsøking og diagnostisering utviklet gjennom bruk av simuleringsverktøy. I tillegg gir denne delen en praktisk forklaring av feilene i de VVS-anleggene som er behandlet i undersøkelsen.

Det praktiske grunnlaget for avhandlingen er etablert gjennom to undersøkelser. Den første var en spørreundersøkelse som hadde til hensikt å kartlegge målsetninger for funksjonskontroll i norske bygninger. Gjennom dette ble det etablert en oversikt over de mest typiske bygninger med tilhørende VVS-anlegg og de mest forekommende problemene. En dypere undersøkelse ble utført på ett casebygg. Denne undersøkelsen viste seg å være nyttig både for kartlegging av betydningen av organisering av driften av bygningen og for avdekking av de virkelige feilene i det vannbårne oppvarmingssystemet.

En kobling mellom et simulerings- og et optimaliseringsprogram (EnergyPlus og GenOpt) har vært benyttet for forbedring av ytelsene for de VVS-tekniske installasjonene. Disse verktøyene har vært brukt for forbedring av både systemløsningene og styringsstrategiene for VVS-anlegg. Bygninger med vannbåren oppvarmingssystem har vært analysert for å forbedre systemløsningen. På grunn av begrensninger i bruken av optimaliseringsverktøyet GenOpt, har det blitt utviklet egne prosedyrer for håndtering av visse typer problemstillinger hvor denne begrensningen opptrer. Resultatene for optimaliseringen viser at valg av objektfunksjoner påvirker betydelig parametrene i det vannbårne oppvarmingssystemet.

Endringer i egenskapene til både bygningskonstruksjoner og utstyr som skjer på grunn av aldring over tiden, gjør det nødvendig med tilpassning av styringsstrategier slik at det virkelige behovet kan bli dekket. Denne problemstillingen har vært analysert ved bruk av EnergyPlus og GenOpt. Styringsstrategiene for to forskjellige VVS-anlegg, et vannbåret oppvarmingssystem og et ventilasjonsanlegg med varmegjenvinner har blitt behandlet. Den utviklete prosedyren for optimalisering av styringsstrategien består av følgende steg: innføring av optimaliseringsvariabler og objektfunksjon, samt utvikling av informasjonsflyt for behandling av optimaliseringsprosessen.

De virkelige data, både fra SD-anlegg og tilleggsmålinger, har vært benyttet for praktisk forklaring av feilene i oppvarmingssystemet. En prosedyre for modellkalibrering basert på bruk av en optimaliseringsalgoritme som kobler sammen de virkelige data og en enkel varmebalansemodell har blitt foreslått. Tre konkrete driftsfeil i oppvarmingssystemet har blitt belyst gjennom bruk av denne varmebalansemodellen.

Flere regler for feilsøking og diagnostisering har blitt utviklet ved hjelp av simuleringsverktøyene EnergyPlus and TRNSYS. Denne utviklingen har bestått av tre ulike steg: testing av bestemte feil, beregning av ytelsesindikatorer og til slutt klassifisering av de observerte ytelsesindikatorer. Reglene har blitt utviklet for et system av aggregater for luftkjøling og for et vannbåret oppvarmingssystem. Reglene kan diagnostisere både styringsfeil og komponentfeil. Til slutt presenteres informasjon som er nyttig for drift av VVS-tekniske installasjoner i bygninger basert på en analyse av årsakene for og virkningene av de feil som er behandlet.

De viktigste konklusjonene er knyttet til praktisk kombinasjon av virkelige måleverdier og simuleringsverktøy. Informasjon fra det virkelig liv er helt nødvendig for å få en god forståelse av feil som oppstår i anlegg. Det er også vist at potensialet som ligger i alle de data som er tilgjengelige gjennom SD-anlegg, ikke er fullt utnyttet. Gjennom bruk av simuleringsverktøy kan styringsstrategiene alltid bli bedre tilpasset og innjustert til de virkelige behov i bygningen. Simuleringsverktøy kan også brukes for utvikling av prosedyrer for feilsøking og diagnostisering i VVS-tekniske anlegg. Disse prosedyrene kan brukes enten som en veileder for manuell feilsøking og detektering eller som grunnlag for utvikling av automatiserte algoritmer.

Paper II, VI and VII are reprinted with kind permission from Elsevier, sciencedirect.com

Reinforcement corrosion is one of the major causes of deterioration of reinforced concrete structures exposed to aggressive environments. Deterioration caused by reinforcement corrosion reduces the serviceability and load bearing capacity of the concrete structures to an extent of serious structural failure. Consequently, this increases the resources required for the maintenance and rehabilitation over time. Due to uncertainties associated with the performance deterioration, it is difficult to accurately assess the residual strength and remaining useful life of corrosion damaged concrete structure. Therefore, the reliability-based performance assessment techniques based on stochastic deterioration modelling has significant potential for assessing the present and future performance of these structures. This can be ultimately helpful in sustainable and cost-effective infrastructure management. This research presents new analytical methods for evaluating concrete crack evolution, estimating rebar bond strength degradation and predicting residual flexural strength of concrete structures affected by reinforcement corrosion. At first, cracking in cover concrete due to reinforcement corrosion is investigated by using rebar-concrete model and realistic concrete properties. The bond strength evolution of the corroded rebar is then evaluated at different stages of cover cracking by considering adhesion, confinement and corrosion pressure acting at the bond interface. Furthermore, the residual flexural strength of concrete beams is predicted with consideration of bond failure between the rebar and concrete. The gamma process is adopted for stochastic modelling of concrete crack growth and strength deterioration with uncertainties. Then, a time-dependent reliability analysis is undertaken to evaluate the probability of failure in serviceability and load carrying capacity of corrosion damaged concrete beams. Optimal repair planning during the service life is also determined by balancing the cost for maintenance and the risk of structural failure. Finally, the results evaluated from the proposed methods are examined by available experimental and field data and the applicability is demonstrated by numerical examples. The results obtained show that the proposed methods are capable of evaluating the performance and can also provide risk-cost balanced repair strategy during the lifetime of corrosion damaged concrete structures. The knowledge gained from this research contributes to the better understanding of the mechanics of performance deterioration associated with reinforcement corrosion. Furthermore, the methods presented in this study could be helpful in assessing the actual state of performance deterioration and making decision regarding the optimal repair.

Building fire safety is significantly influenced by building and fire safety regulations (often codes and standards). These regulations specify what fire safety measures should be included in a given building as a minimum requirement. Since fire engineers develop fire safety designs based on the regulations, they are often viewed as the primary agents in ensuring the fire safety of buildings. However, their mission often starts with given building design features, such as interior spatial layout, exterior shape, site plan, and so forth, which are mostly determined by architects (or architects). Although architects design buildings within the boundaries of the regulatory requirements, their focus is not generally on fire safety, but more on visual and spatial aesthetics of buildings. These objectives are linked to building form and functionality, which are not subject to the building and fire safety regulations. These objectives can sometimes compete with fire safety objectives in such a way that buildings can be unsafe in certain situations due to unintended effects of building design features on actual fire safety performance. To determine whether a building has design features which work against fire safety performance, evaluation of building fire safety performance must take into account the effects of building design features. If fire safety performance is significantly decreased by building design attributes, additional fire safety measures or modifications of the building design should be incorporated to provide an appropriate level of fire safety performance. While there have been various building fire safety evaluation tools developed over the last forty or so years, none of them comprehensively considers building design features and their associated effects as key performance parameters. In this context, the current study develops conceptual models for fire safety performance assessment in both qualitative and quantitative manners. After scrutinizing previous fire incidents and the building features which contributed to their outcomes, various fire safety performance attributes, including building design features, are identified and cause-effect relationships among the attributes are established. Then, the attributes are organized hierarchically like a tree diagram such that the performance of one upper level attribute is determined by the combined performance of multiple lower level attributes. In this way, the performance of bottom level attributes propagates upward to the upper level attributes. Two tree diagrams are established for the most common fire safety objectives, life safety and property protection. Each attribute in the tree diagrams has two quantified values: performance value and weighting factor. The current study uses three different performance values (0.01, 0.5, and 1) for bottom level attributes representing poor, average and good performance, respectively. In addition, as each attribute can have different contribution to upper level attributes, a weighting factor between 0 and 1 is assigned to each attribute which represent the relative importance. With these two values, the performance value of an upper level attribute is calculated using the weighted sum method (summation of multiplied values of performance value and weighting factor) which is commonly used in the Analytical Hierarchy Process. As the performance of an attributes is a function of specific designs, building uses, occupants, and site conditions, in the first instance, judgments of the fire engineers can be used to assign weights and performance values, but they can also be determined jointly among stakeholders. Generally speaking, the details of attributes for fire safety performance are not determined at once. Rather they are gradually determined as the building design progresses. This means that in early design building design phase, many of the attributes are unknown as well as fire safety performance. Once appropriate information can be provided to architects by fire engineers at each building design phase, it is likely to avoid possible conflicts between design details and fire safety performance. Using the fire safety evaluation model, weak attributes for fire safety performance can be identified and possible make-up strategy and building design approach can be developed in advance. This provides the potential for the collaboration between fire engineers and architects and at the end for increasing building fire safety performance of buildings.

The world’s energy use in buildings (residential and commercial) accounts for around 40% of the worldwide energy consumption, and space heating is the responsible for half of the energy need in the building sector. In Europe, only a small share (less than 10%) of existing buildings was built after 1990. Most of the building stock does not satisfy the recent energy technical standards; in addition there is a very low trend to construct new buildings in the last years. Renovation of the existing buildings is a feasible option to reduce the energy need in Europe, but finding the optimum solutions for a renovation is not a simple task. Each design parameter differently influences the final energy need of buildings and, furthermore, the different variables are differently correlated each other. Building refurbishment will benefit from a tool for the selection of the best measures in term of energy need. This work, through a global sensitivity analysis, aims at determining the contribution of the design parameters to the building energy demand and the correlation between the different variables. The considered parameters are related to the improvement of the thermal transmittance of both the opaque envelope and the windows, the solar transmittance of the glazing surfaces, the window size, the thermal inertia of the internal walls and the external sunshades for windows. Several dynamic simulations have been performed varying the design parameters from different starting conditions. Finally, due to the large number of cases elaborated, an inferential statistical analysis has been performed in order to identify the predominant factors and the correlation between the design parameters in a global context.

No que toca à avaliação de sistemas construtivos, a análise dos sistemas existentes para certificação ambiental de edifícios revela que há raras ferramentas que avaliam desempenho ambiental objetiva e holisticamente por Análise do Ciclo de Vida (ACV), predominando o reconhecimento de atributos de produtos e, desta forma, perdendo-se a noção global do impacto. Dentre as principais dificuldades encontradas para o uso da ACV em sistemas construtivos, encontra-se a escassez de dados de inventário disponíveis para sistemas construtivos no cenário brasileiro, o que torna a aplicação da metodologia ainda mais complexa e demorada. Por outro lado, bancos de dados internacionais dispõem de uma quantidade considerável de informações, as quais são muitas vezes utilizadas para estudos realizados dirigindo-se ao contexto brasileiro. Assim, esta pesquisa buscou responder às seguintes questões: a) se coletados para processos idênticos, os dados disponíveis em bases de dados internacionais validadas devem levar a resultados similares àqueles obtidos por estudos baseados em dados primários coletados no contexto brasileiro?; b) As metodologias de avaliação de impacto disponíveis na atualidade são capazes de avaliar de forma completa e consistente os principais potenciais de impacto derivados do ciclo de vida de materiais de construção tradicionais? Com isso o objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar a sensibilidade dos resultados de um estudo comparativo de ACV à utilização de dados secundários (provenientes de bases de dados europeias) ou dados primários (coletados no contexto brasileiro), assim como à utilização de diferentes metodologias de Avaliação de Impacto de Ciclo de Vida (AICV), identificando as categorias de impacto de contribuição mais significativa na avaliação de sistemas construtivos tradicionais, pela aplicação da metodologia em um estudo de caso. Os resultados demonstraram que o escopo geográfico das fontes de dados, assim como as possibilidades de escolha entre diferentes metodologias de AICV constituem pontos de grande sensibilidade dos estudos de ACV, os quais devem ser detalhadamente avaliados e descritos, de forma a se evitar resultados enganosos. Além disso, o desenvolvimento de categorias direcionadas especificamente aos impactos das atividades de mineração apresentou-se como uma importante demanda para futuros desenvolvimentos.
Regarding the evaluation of building systems, the analysis of existing buildings environmental certification systems reveals that there are few tools to evaluate environmental performance objectively and holistically through Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) predominating the product attributes recognition and thus losing the global perspective of impacts. Among the main difficulties encountered in the application of LCA in building systems, lies the lack of inventory data available for building systems in the Brazilian scene, which makes the application of the methodology even more complex and time consuming. In the other hand, international databases provide a considerable amount of information, which are often used for studies addressing the Brazilian context. Thus, this research aimed to answer the following questions: a) whether collected for identical processes, the data available in the international validated databases would lead to results similar to those obtained by studies based on primary data collected in the Brazilian context? b) Are the impact assessment methodologies currently available able to fully and consistently evaluate the main potential impacts derived from the lifecycle of traditional building materials? Therefore, the objective of this research was to perform a sensitivity analysis of the results of a comparative LCA case study to the use of secondary data (provided by European databases) or primary data (collected in the Brazilian context), as well as the use of different Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methodologies, identifying the impact categories of most significant contribution in the evaluation of traditional construction systems, through the application of the methodology in a case study. The results showed that the geographic scope of the data sources and the choice among different LCIA methods are points of high sensitivity of LCA studies, which must be evaluated and described in detail to avoid misleading conclusions. Furthermore, the development of an LCIA category addressing impacts of mining activities was presented as the main demand for future developments.

Practicing engineers need an integrated building, HVAC and control simulation tool for optimum HVAC design and retrofit. Various tools are available to the researchers, but these are not appropriate for the consulting engineer. To provide the engineer with a tool which can be used for typical HVAC projects, new models for building, HVAC and control simulation are introduced and integrated in a user-friendly, quick-to-use tool. The new thermal model for buildings is based on a transfer matrix description of the heat transfer through the building shell. It makes provision for the various heat flow paths that make up the overall heat flow through the building structure. The model has been extensively verified with one hundred and three case studies. These case studies were conducted on a variety of buildings, ranging from a 4m2 bathroom, to a 7755 m2 factory building. Eight of the case studies were conducted independently in the Negev Desert in Israel. The thermal model is also used in a program that was custom-made for the AGREMENT Board (certification board for the thermal performance of new low-cost housing projects). Extensions to the standard tool were introduced to predict the potential for condensation on the various surfaces. Standard user patterns were incorporated in the program so that all the buildings are evaluated on the same basis. In the second part of this study the implementation of integrated simulation is discussed. A solution algorithm, based on the Tarjan depth first-search algorithm, was implemented. This ensures that the minimum number of variables are identified. A quasi-Newton solution algorithm is used to solve the resultant simultaneous equations. Various extensions to the HVAC and control models and simulation originally suggested by Rousseau [1] were implemented. Firstly, the steady-state models were extended by using a simplified time-constant approach to emulate the dynamic response of the equipment. Secondly, a C02 model for the building zone was implemented. Thirdly, the partload performance of particular equipment was implemented. Further extensions to the simulation tool were implemented so that energy management strategies could be simulated. A detailed discussion of the implications of the energy management systems was given and the benefits of using these strategies were clearly illustrated, in this study. Finally, the simulation tool was verified by three case studies. The buildings used for the verification ranged from a five-storeyed office and laboratory building, to a domestic dwelling. The energy consumption and the dynamics of the HVAC systems could be predicted sufficiently accurately to warrant the use of the tool for future building retrofit studies
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 1997.
gm2014
Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering
unrestricted

Floods are natural phenomena which are a threat to human settlements. Flooding can result in costly repairs to buildings, loss of business and, in some cases, loss of life. The forecasts for climate change show a further increased risk of flooding in future years. Accordingly, the flooding of residential property has been observed as on the rise in the UK. It is difficult to prevent floods from occurring, but the effects of flooding can be managed in an attempt to reduce risks and costs of repair. This can be achieved through ensuring a good understanding of the problem, and thereby establishing good management systems which are capable of dealing with all aspects of the flood. The use of an intelligent system for assessment and remediation of buildings subjected to flooding damage can facilitate the management of this problem. Such a system can provide guidance for the assessment of vulnerability and the repair of flood damaged residential buildings; this could save time and money through the use of the advantages and benefits offered by knowledge base systems. A prototype knowledge base system has been developed in this research. The system comprises three subsystems: degree of vulnerability assessment subsystem; remediation options subsystem; and foundation damage assessment subsystem. The vulnerability assessment subsystem is used to calculate the degree of vulnerability, which will then be used by the remediation options subsystem to select remediation options strategy. The vulnerability assessment subsystem can subsequently be used to calculate the degree to which the building is vulnerable to damage by flooding even if it is not flooded. Remediation options subsystem recommended two strategy options: either ordinary remediation options in the case of vulnerability being low or, alternatively, resilience remediation options in the case of vulnerability being high. The foundation damage assessment subsystem is working alone and is used to assess the damage caused by flooding to the building s foundation, and to thereby recommend a repair option based on the damage caused and foundation type. The system has been developed based on the knowledge acquired from different sources and methods, including survey questionnaires, documents, interviews, and workshops. The system is then evaluated by experts and professionals in the industry. The developed system makes a contribution in the management and standardisation of residential building flooded damage and repair.

Thesis (M. S.)--Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010.
Committee Chair: Augenbroe, Godfried; Committee Member: Bayer, Charlene; Committee Member: Gentry, Russell. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

La performance énergétique est un pilier pour réduire l'utilisation d'énergie non renouvelable, en plus de l'utilisation des énergies renouvelables. En fait, les bâtiments sont au cœur de la politique des performances énergétiques de l'UE puisque 40% de la consommation finale d'énergie et 36% des émissions de gaz à effet de serre provient des bureaux, magasins et autres bâtiments. Les bâtiments peuvent être considérés comme des systèmes dynamiques et le transfert de la chaleur dans les bâtiments peut être représenté en utilisant des modèles dynamiques. De cette façon, le transfert de la chaleur dans les bâtiments peut être décrit par des réseaux thermiques obtenus en utilisant la théorie des graphes et de la thermodynamique, et peuvent être déduits de l'équation de la chaleur classique. Les réseaux thermiques peuvent être exprimés comme un système d'équations différentielles et algébriques (DAE) qui peut être transformé en représentation d'état et obtenir un fonction de transfert à partir de laquelle un modèle autorégressif avec des variables exogènes (ARX) peut être obtenu. Ces différentes structures de modèle peuvent être utilisées pour identifier les paramètres physiques des réseaux thermiques, ce qui implique que la méthode peut être utilisée pour identifier la performance intrinsèque des bâtiments et aider à la réduction de la consommation d'énergie dans les bâtiments.Cela peut faciliter l'évaluation de la performance énergétique des bâtiments dans un cadre reproductible qui permet la comparaison entre différentes solutions constructives.Les principales contributions originales de cette thèse sont: 1) les réseaux thermiques sont présentées à partir de la théorie des graphes et de la thermodynamique, sans considérer l'analogie thermique-électrique; 2) l'équation classique de la chaleur est reliée explicitement avec un système de DAE (réseau thermique) par les éléments finis; 3) différentes transformations pour déduire des modèles du transfert de la chaleur avec signification physique, à partir de l'équation de la chaleur classique, sont présentées toutes ensemble; 4) les transformations entre les modèles sont effectuées à partir des réseaux thermiques jusqu’aux modèles autorégressifs avec des variables exogènes (ARX) et vice-versa; et 5) un critère de sélection de l'ordre du modèle par une analyse de fréquence des mesures est proposé
Energy efficiency is one of the two pillars to decrease the use of non-renewable energy besides the use of renewables energies. In fact, buildings are central to the EU's energy efficiency policy, as nearly 40% of the final energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions take place in houses, offices, shops and other buildings. Buildings may be considered as dynamic systems and heat transfer in buildings may be represented using dynamic models. In this way, heat transfer in buildings may be described by thermal networks which may be stated considering graph theory and thermodynamics, and may be deduced from the classical heat equation. Thermal networks may be expressed as a system of linear differential algebraic equations (DAE) and the system of linear DAE may be transformed into a state-space representation from which an autoregressive model with exogenous (ARX) can be obtained. These different model structures may be used for identifying the physical parameters of thermal networks which implies that this methodology may be useful for identifying the intrinsic performance of buildings and tackling the reduction of non-renewable energy consumption in buildings. This may facilitate the assessment of energy efficiency of buildings within a reproducible framework which allows the comparison between different constructive solutions.The main original contributions of this dissertation are: 1) thermal networks are stated from graph theory and thermodynamics, leaving back the thermal-electrical analogy; 2) classical heat equation is connected explicitly to a system of DAE (thermal network) by using the finite elements; 3) the transformations for deducing heat transfer models with physical meaning from the classical heat equation are put altogether; 4) transformations between models may are done from thermal networks to autoregressive models with exogenous (ARX) and back; and 5) a criterion for selecting the order of the model by frequency analysis of measurements is proposed

The development of an autonomous system for the accurate measurement of the quality of aerodrome ground lighting (AGL) in accordance with current standards and recommendations is presented. The system is composed of an imager which is placed inside the cockpit of an aircraft. This is used to record images of the AGL during a normal descent to an aerodrome. Using these images, two techniques are proposed to assess the performance of the AGL. The first, termed uniformity, assesses the performance of the AGL based on the average pixel grey level (APGL) of each extracted luminaire. The second technique assesses the individual luminous intensity of each luminaire in the AGL based on its total grey level (TGL). Before the performance of the AGL is assessed, it is first necessary to uniquely identify each luminaire within the image data and track them through an image sequence. A new model-based methodology is proposed to overcome inefficfencies with existing techniques. The new approach utilises projective geometry in order to find the optimum match between a template of the AGL and the actual image data using non-linear least-squares optimisation. The algorithms return a set of uniquely identified luminaires with the associated camera position for each frame. The uniformity software uses this information to group the luminaires into bands which have similar luminous intensity in accordance with the relevant standards and a search is conducted within each band to classify the luminaires according to their APGL and TGL. The luminaires are grouped into one of four classifications: fail, under-perform, pass and over-perform; with failing luminaires automatically highlighted by the system. A new intensity model is then presented which determines the luminous intensity of each uniquely identified luminaire. Both techniques are validated on real and synthetic image data.

Due to rapid advancements in sensing and computation technology, multiple types of sensors have been embedded in various applications, on-line automatically collecting massive production information. Although this data-rich environment provides great opportunity for more effective process control, it also raises new research challenges on data analysis and decision making due to the complex data structures, such as heterogeneous data dependency, and large-volume and high-dimensional characteristics. This thesis contributes to the area of System Informatics and Control (SIAC) to develop systematic data fusion methodologies for effective quality control and performance improvement in complex systems. These advanced methodologies enable (1) a better handling of the rich data environment communicated by complex engineering systems, (2) a closer monitoring of the system status, and (3) a more accurate forecasting of future trends and behaviors. The research bridges the gaps in methodologies among advanced statistics, engineering domain knowledge and operation research. It also forms close linkage to various application areas such as manufacturing, health care, energy and service systems. This thesis started from investigating the optimal sensor system design and conducting multiple sensor data fusion analysis for process monitoring and diagnosis in different applications. In Chapter 2, we first studied the couplings or interactions between the optimal design of a sensor system in a Bayesian Network and quality management of a manufacturing system, which can improve cost-effectiveness and production yield by considering sensor cost, process change detection speed, and fault diagnosis accuracy in an integrated manner. An algorithm named “Best Allocation Subsets by Intelligent Search” (BASIS) with optimality proof is developed to obtain the optimal sensor allocation design at minimum cost under different user specified detection requirements. Chapter 3 extended this line of research by proposing a novel adaptive sensor allocation framework, which can greatly improve the monitoring and diagnosis capabilities of the previous method. A max-min criterion is developed to manage sensor reallocation and process change detection in an integrated manner. The methodology was tested and validated based on a hot forming process and a cap alignment process. Next in Chapter 4, we proposed a Scalable-Robust-Efficient Adaptive (SERA) sensor allocation strategy for online high-dimensional process monitoring in a general network. A monitoring scheme of using the sum of top-r local detection statistics is developed, which is scalable, effective and robust in detecting a wide range of possible shifts in all directions. This research provides a generic guideline for practitioners on determining (1) the appropriate sensor layout; (2) the “ON” and “OFF” states of different sensors; and (3) which part of the acquired data should be transmitted to and analyzed at the fusion center, when only limited resources are available. To improve the accuracy of remaining lifetime prediction, Chapter 5 proposed a data-level fusion methodology for degradation modeling and prognostics. When multiple sensors are available to measure the degradation mechanism of a same system, it becomes a high dimensional and challenging problem to determine which sensors to use and how to combine them together for better data analysis. To address this issue, we first defined two essential properties if present in a degradation signal, can enhance the effectiveness for prognostics. Then, we proposed a generic data-level fusion algorithm to construct a composite health index to achieve those two identified properties. The methodology was tested using the degradation signals of aircraft gas turbine engine, which demonstrated a much better prognostic result compared to relying solely on the data from an individual sensor. In summary, this thesis is the research drawing attention to the area of data fusion for effective employment of the underlying data gathering capabilities for system modeling, performance assessment and improvement. The fundamental data fusion methodologies are developed and further applied to various applications, which can facilitate resources planning, real-time monitoring, diagnosis and prognostics.

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This research focuses on the application of existing assessment tools that may be applicable to Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4) System of Systems (SoS) performance assessment efforts. An analysis of the Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity's (MCTSSA's) C4 SoS assessment approach provides a means for defining a MAGTF C4 SoS and for illustrating how that SoS is represented in the assessment environment. This provides the framework and context for follow-on examination of SoS performance metrics. The challenges with defining specific performance metrics and examination of past assessment events using those metrics provide the basis for discussion of alternative approaches and application of assessment tools specifically tailored for SoS assessment efforts. Three specific tools, i-Score, Interoperability Quotient (IQ), and Dynamic Software Architecture Visualization and Evaluation (DynSAVE), are examined. The results indicate i-Score and DynSAVE offer the greatest potential applicability to the MAGTF SoS assessment effort. In a culminating discussion, applying a multicriteria identification process to obtain a mathematical model that correlates an interoperability measure with measurable SoS performance criteria is proposed as a means of extending the i-Score model for greater applicability to SoS assessment and performance improvement efforts.

Building management system (BMS) offers a wide range of measurements and historical data about the building but few types of researches use these data to analyze the building performance. This study aims to explore the indoor climate and building insulation by taking advantage of the BMS of the study case, which 767 sensors are installed in the room and wall structures and the signal data are available at the online web application. In addition, during the inspection, several error sensors and meters are detected are discussed as feedback for the system. It is concluded that the building management system is a good tool to study the building performance in different aspects and the measurements from the sensors are helpful but need validation by conducting a further field measurement in the building.

The unreasonable length of Italian civil proceedings goes on filling pages of newspapers and magazines. According to some authoritative views, the inefficiency of the civil justice system helps explain why the Italian model legislation on civil proceedings, as well as its academic research, are not as influential on the European scene as they were in the past. It is interesting to note that an opposed thesis has pointed out that the Italian procedurallaw and recent researches in civil proceedings lack a clear, up-to-date, principle-oriented and comprehensive approach towards problems and challenges that contemporary civil justice systems face today. Such an outdated and overly complicated approach might contribute to the inefficiency of the Italian civiljustice system. The Italian Law Journal, which aims to both spread knowledge (and criticism) of the Italian legal system and foster international debate among lawyers of different traditions, may be an appropriate venue for deepening our understanding of the current performance of the Italian civil justice system. Itmay, in particular, assist in ascertaining the major causes of the inefficiencies, with a view to assessing (in a subsequent article) if the prevailing way of thinking of legal scholars may, in the end, exacerbate the relevant problems.
La longitud poco razonable de los procesos civiles italianos continúa llenando páginas de periódicos y revistas. De acuerdo con algunas opiniones autorizadas, la ineficiencia del sistema de justicia civil ayuda a explicar el motivo por el cual el modelo italiano de legislación en materia de procedimiento civil, así como su investigación académica, no sean tan influyentes en la escena europea como lo fueron en el pasado. Es interesante notar que una tesis opuesta ha señalado que el derecho procesal italiano y las investigaciones recientes sobre el proceso civil carecen de un enfoque claro, integral, actualizado y orientado por principios sobre los problemas y desafíos que el sistema de justicia civil afronta actualmente. Tal enfoque anticuado y demasiado complicado podría contribuir a la ineficiencia del sistema de justicia civil italiano. El Italian Law Journal, cuyo objetivo es la difusión de conocimiento (y crítica) del sistema legal italiano y la promoción del debate internacional entre abogados de distintas tradiciones, puede ser un modo apropiado para profundizar nuestra comprensión del desempeño actual del sistema de justicia civil italiano. Puede, en particular, ayudar a determinar las principales causas de las ineficiencias con el fin de evaluar (en un artículo posterior) si la forma predominante de pensamiento de los estudiosos del derecho posiblemente, al final, exacerba problemas relevantes.

Building-integrated Concentrator Photovoltaic (BICPV) technology produces noiseless and pollution free electricity at the point of use. With a potential to contribute immensely to the increasing global need for a sustainable and low carbon energy, the primary challenges such as thermal management of the panels are overwhelming. Although significant progress has been made in the solar cell efficiency increase, the concentrator photovoltaic industry has still to go a long way before it becomes competitive and economically viable. Experiencing great losses in their electrical efficiencies at high temperatures that may eventually lead to permanent degradation over time, affects the market potential severely. With a global PV installed capacity of 303 GW, a nominal 10 °C decrease in their average temperatures could theoretically lead to a 5 % electricity efficiency improvement resulting in 15 GW increase in electricity production worldwide. However, due to a gap in the research knowledge concerning the effectiveness of the available passive thermal regulation techniques both individually and working in tandem, this lucrative potential is yet to be realised. The work presented in this thesis has been focussed on incremental performance improvement of BICPV by developing innovative solutions for passive cooling of the low concentrator based BICPV. Passive cooling approaches are selected as they are generally simpler, more cost-effective and considered more reliable than active cooling. Phase Change Materials (PCM) have been considered as the primary means to achieve this. The design, fabrication and the characterisation of four different types of BIPCV-PCM assemblies are described. The experimental investigations were conducted indoors under the standard test conditions. In general, for all the fabricated and assembled BICPV-PCM systems, the electrical power output showed an increase of 2 %-17 % with the use of PCM depending on the PCM type and irradiance. The occurrence of hot spots due to thermal disequilibrium in the PV has been a cause of high degradation rates for the modules. With the use of PCM, a more uniform temperature within the module could be realised, which has the potential to extend the lifetime of the BICPV in the long-term. Consequentially, this may minimise the intensive energy required for the production of the PV cells and mitigate the associated environmental impacts. Following a parallel secondary approach to the challenge, the design of a micro-finned back plate integrated with a PCM containment has been proposed. This containment was 3D printed to save manufacturing costs and time and for reducing the PCM leakage. An organic PCM dispersed with high thermal conductivity nanomaterial was successfully tested. The cost-benefit analysis indicated that the cost per degree temperature reduction (£/°C) with the sole use of micro-fins was the highest at 1.54, followed by micro-fins + PCM at 0.23 and micro-fins + n-PCM at 0.19. The proposed use of PCM and application of micro-finned surfaces for BICPV heat dissipation in combination with PCM and n-PCM is one the novelties reported in this thesis. In addition, an analytical model for the design of BICPV-PCM system has been presented which is the only existing model to date. The results from the assessment of thermal regulation benefits achieved by introducing micro-finning, PCM and n-PCM into BICPV will provide vital information about their applicability in the future. It may also influence the prospects for how low concentration BICPV systems will be manufactured in the future.

The goal of Intelligent Tutoring systems (ITSs) is to engage the students in sustained reasoning activity and to interact with students based on a deep understanding of student behavior. In order to understand student behavior, ITSs rely on student modeling methods to observes student actions in the tutor and creates a quantitative representation of student knowledge, interests, affective states. Good student models are going to effectively help ITSs customize instructions, engage student's interest and then promote learning. Thus, the work of building ITSs and advancing student modeling should be considered as two interconnected components of one system rather than two separate topics. In this work, we utilized the theoretical support of a well-known learning science theory, the spacing effect, to guide the development of an ITS, called Automatic Reassessment and Relearning System (ARRS). ARRS not only validated the effectiveness of spacing effect, but it also served as a testing field which allowed us to find out new approaches to improve student learning by conducting large-scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The rich data set we gathered from ARRS has advanced our understanding of robust learning and helped us build student models with advanced data mining methods. At the end, we designed a set of API that supports the development of ARRS in next generation ASSISTments platform and adopted deep learning algorithms to further improve retention performance prediction. We believe our work is a successful example of combining theory and practice to advance science and address real- world problems.

Energy and cost performance optimization for commercial building system design is growing in popularity, but it is often criticized for its time consuming process. Moreover, the current process lacks integration, which not only affects time performance, but also investors’ confidence in the predicted performance of the generated design. Such barriers keep building owners and design teams from embracing life cycle cost consideration. This thesis proposes a computationally efficient design optimization platform to improve the time performance and to streamline the workflow in an integrated multi-objective building system design optimization process. First, building system cost estimation is typically completed through a building information model based quantity take-off process, which does not provide sufficient design decision support features in the design process. To remedy this issue, an automatic cost estimation framework that integrates EnergyPlus with an external database to perform building systems’ capital and operation costs is proposed. Optimization, typically used for building system design selection, requires a large amount of computational time. The optimization process evaluates building envelope, electrical and HVAC systems in an integrated system not only to explore the cost-saving potential from a single high performance system, but also the interrelated effects among different systems. An innovative optimization strategy that integrates machine learning techniques with a conventional evolutionary algorithm is proposed. This strategy can reduce run time and improve the quality of the solutions. Lastly, developing baseline energy models typically takes days or weeks depending on the scale of the design. An automated system for generating baseline energy model according to ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1 performance rating method is thus proposed to provide a quick appraisal of optimal designs in comparison with the baseline energy requirements. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of a new design optimization platform to expedite the conventional decision making process. The platform integrates three systems: (1) cost estimation, (2) optimization and (3) benchmark comparison for minimizing the first cost and energy operation costs. This allows designers to confidently select an optimal design with high performance building systems by making a comparison with the minimum energy baseline set by standards in the building industry. Two commercial buildings are selected as case studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of this platform. One building is the Center for Sustainable Landscapes in Pittsburgh, PA. This case study is used as a new construction project. With 54 million possible design solutions, the platform is able to identify optimal designs in four hours. Some of the design solutions not only save the operation costs by up to 23% compared to the ASHRAE baseline design, but also reduce the capital cost ranging from 5% to 23%. Also, compared with the ASHRAE baseline design, one design solution demonstrates that the high investment of a product, building integrative photovoltaic (BiPV) system, can be justified through the integrative design optimization approach by the lower operation costs (20%) as well as the lower capital cost (12%). The second building is the One Montgomery Plaza, a large office building in Norristown, PA. This case study focuses on using the platform for a retrofit project. The calibrated energy model requires one hour to complete the simulation. There are 4000 possible design solutions proposed and the platform is able to find the optimal design solution in around 50 hours. Similarly, the results indicate that up to 25% capital cost can be saved with $1.7 million less operation costs in 25 years, compare to the ASHRAE baseline design.

For the development of performance based design on a proper scientific basis the use of the concept of risk is inevitable. However, the application of this concept to actual structural design is not simple because of the large ranges of probability and consequences of events which exist. This is compounded by a plethora of different actions that can be taken to reduce the probabilities of the events and also the magnitude of the consequences. It is the reduction in the magnitude of these consequences which is essentially the goal of design. This work aims to address the challenges posed by the application of the concepts of performance based design for structures in fire. Simple methodologies have been developed for the assessment of the consequences of an extreme event. These methodologies are based upon fundamental behaviour of structures in fire. A methodology has been developed which can be used to assess the capacity/deflection behaviour through the complete thermal deflection of floor slabs. This takes into account positive effects on the capacity of floor slabs of the membrane stress at the slabs boundaries at low deflections as well as the final capacity provided by the tensile membrane action of the reinforcement mesh at high deflections. For vertical stability of structures in fire, analytical equations to describe the behaviour of floor systems at the perimeter of a building are developed. From these equations, the resulting pull-in forces on external columns can be calculated as well as the resulting horizontal load applied to the column. From this, a simple stability assessment is proposed which can be used to assess the consequences of multiple floor fires on tall buildings. These analytical methodologies are brought together in a risk based frame- work for structural design which can be used to identify areas in a building or structural components which pose a high residual risk. These elements can be qualitatively ’ranked’ according to their relative risk and appropriate measures taken to reduce the risk to an acceptable level. The framework is illustrated via 2 case studies. The first is of a typical small office building, and the second is of a prestige office development.

The aim of this research is to explore the sustainability of the existing residential buildings and to analyse how sustainability can be assessed if sustainable materials and technologies would be used. The main objectives are concentrated in providing a general knowledge of sustainability and to examine how much sustainable the residential buildings are. To analyze the various technologies and materials that can be used in order to reduce the climate-altering emissions, to improve energy efficiency, to reduce costs and to improve the living conditions. Providing knowledge and tools for the sustainable re-design of existing buildings, which will be addressed to environmental, technical, economic and social feasibility of proposed measures, and to energy control. For the analysis, different case studies in different countries will be studied and then a life-cycle approach will be applied to a theoretical residential building, and all the relevant impact categories for the selected type of buildings will be taken into account. In order to analyze the sustainability of the building, a qualitative research will be done using literature sources, international database, journal articles, technical and official reports from the government or group researchers patented and SimaPro software. Materials and dimensions will be defined and will be studied the integrated energy performance, CO2 emissions, global warming, acoustic comfort, thermal comfort, indoor environmental quality for existing residential building structures. All these steps will be taken in order to allow an LCA analysis of the materials of the residential buildings and to define when can be considered that the system has actually been sustained.

Distributed real-time process control systems are notoriously difficult to develop. They frequently overrun time schedules and break cost constraints. The problems are compounded where there are multiple development teams and stakeholders. Conventional model-driven development has been examined to see if it can be extended to resolve some of these problems. It may be possible to use early system design stages to identify performance issues which would otherwise not be identified until late in the development of the system. A functional model is proposed, in addition to those conventionally used for model-driven development, based on loosely coupled functional elements, to represent the behaviour of each system component. The model complements existing requirements and design specifications and addresses the combination of individual component abstractions to produce a complete system specification. The functional model enables the accurate prediction of system performance prior to the detailed design of each component. The thesis examines how performance can be calculated and modelled. An animator tool and associated code generator are used to predict system and component performance in a distributed aircraft navigation system. The use of the animator to support the system design prior to the generation of the component contract specifications and interface control documents provides a means of assessing performance which is accessible to domain experts and system designers alike. The model also enables the effects of requirements changes and component design issues on the system design to be assessed in terms of the system design to provide system wide solutions. This performance assessment model and animator compliments the existing 'fix-it-later' approach, reducing the chances of performance failure detected late during the system development process when they are most expensive to fix.

Automobiles have deeply impacted the way in which we travel but they have also contributed to many deaths and injury due to crashes. A number of reasons for these crashes have been pointed out by researchers. Inexperience has been identified as a contributing factor to road crashes. Driver’s driving abilities also play a vital role in judging the road environment and reacting in-time to avoid any possible collision. Therefore driver’s perceptual and motor skills remain the key factors impacting on road safety. Our failure to understand what is really important for learners, in terms of competent driving, is one of the many challenges for building better training programs. Driver training is one of the interventions aimed at decreasing the number of crashes that involve young drivers. Currently, there is a need to develop comprehensive driver evaluation system that benefits from the advances in Driver Assistance Systems. A multidisciplinary approach is necessary to explain how driving abilities evolves with on-road driving experience. To our knowledge, driver assistance systems have never been comprehensively used in a driver training context to assess the safety aspect of driving. The aim and novelty of this thesis is to develop and evaluate an Intelligent Driver Training System (IDTS) as an automated assessment tool that will help drivers and their trainers to comprehensively view complex driving manoeuvres and potentially provide effective feedback by post processing the data recorded during driving. This system is designed to help driver trainers to accurately evaluate driver performance and has the potential to provide valuable feedback to the drivers. Since driving is dependent on fuzzy inputs from the driver (i.e. approximate distance calculation from the other vehicles, approximate assumption of the other vehicle speed), it is necessary that the evaluation system is based on criteria and rules that handles uncertain and fuzzy characteristics of the driving tasks. Therefore, the proposed IDTS utilizes fuzzy set theory for the assessment of driver performance. The proposed research program focuses on integrating the multi-sensory information acquired from the vehicle, driver and environment to assess driving competencies. After information acquisition, the current research focuses on automated segmentation of the selected manoeuvres from the driving scenario. This leads to the creation of a model that determines a “competency” criterion through the driving performance protocol used by driver trainers (i.e. expert knowledge) to assess drivers. This is achieved by comprehensively evaluating and assessing the data stream acquired from multiple in-vehicle sensors using fuzzy rules and classifying the driving manoeuvres (i.e. overtake, lane change, T-crossing and turn) between low and high competency. The fuzzy rules use parameters such as following distance, gaze depth and scan area, distance with respect to lanes and excessive acceleration or braking during the manoeuvres to assess competency. These rules that identify driving competency were initially designed with the help of expert’s knowledge (i.e. driver trainers). In-order to fine tune these rules and the parameters that define these rules, a driving experiment was conducted to identify the empirical differences between novice and experienced drivers. The results from the driving experiment indicated that significant differences existed between novice and experienced driver, in terms of their gaze pattern and duration, speed, stop time at the T-crossing, lane keeping and the time spent in lanes while performing the selected manoeuvres. These differences were used to refine the fuzzy membership functions and rules that govern the assessments of the driving tasks. Next, this research focused on providing an integrated visual assessment interface to both driver trainers and their trainees. By providing a rich set of interactive graphical interfaces, displaying information about the driving tasks, Intelligent Driver Training System (IDTS) visualisation module has the potential to give empirical feedback to its users. Lastly, the validation of the IDTS system’s assessment was conducted by comparing IDTS objective assessments, for the driving experiment, with the subjective assessments of the driver trainers for particular manoeuvres. Results show that not only IDTS was able to match the subjective assessments made by driver trainers during the driving experiment but also identified some additional driving manoeuvres performed in low competency that were not identified by the driver trainers due to increased mental workload of trainers when assessing multiple variables that constitute driving. The validation of IDTS emphasized the need for an automated assessment tool that can segment the manoeuvres from the driving scenario, further investigate the variables within that manoeuvre to determine the manoeuvre’s competency and provide integrated visualisation regarding the manoeuvre to its users (i.e. trainers and trainees). Through analysis and validation it was shown that IDTS is a useful assistance tool for driver trainers to empirically assess and potentially provide feedback regarding the manoeuvres undertaken by the drivers.

The increasing attention towards energy efficiency issues has triggered an important process involving the renovation of existing buildings and, at the same time, the creation of recognized certifications assuring the quality of the projects. In line with this trend, the Sweco headquarters, an office building characterized by 24700 m2 of floor area and located in Stockholm, was totally retrofitted in 2012 and obtained the Gold rating after being assessed with the Miljöbyggnad certification procedure. The HVAC system was a key element of the retrofit project since one of the final aims was to combine high indoor environment standards with efficient system performances. However, even if the quality of the design is certified, it is possible that, under real operating conditions, complex systems behave differently from the expectations and adjustments are necessary to correct the emerged gap. To achieve this goal, it is essential to identify the points of weakness of the system by carrying out an energy performance analysis, which is the core of this project. In fact, after providing an overview of the building and the retrofit, this work focuses on the analysis of the cooling system installed in the Sweco building and proves the importance of adopting a step-by-step approach to the problem. Therefore, an increasing level of detail characterizes each step of the analysis, whose final aim is to highlight potential aspects to be improved and create a baseline to test possible solutions.
SIRen

Higher education in Australia, as for many other countries, has changed greatly over the last 20 years at all levels and in many areas of operation including teaching, learning and assessment. The driving forces for these changes have been both internal and external, and have included factors such as: the increasing student population; the increasing use of part-time staff; a reduction in government funding; an increased expectation of institutional accountability; and the growing access and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in teaching and learning. Assessment has not escaped these changes but in many cases has not kept up with exemplary and recommended practice. This is especially so in the specific area of task assessment that involves professional judgement, where assessment is a timeconsuming, expensive, poorly managed, and a stressful professional activity, and is often a negative emotional experience for both learners and educators.

The railway is an important mode of transport, due to its environmental friendliness, high safety level, and low energy consumption combined with a high transport capacity, among other factors. The Swedish railway network is old, there has been almost no expansion of the network during the past few decades, and more traffic is expected. Therefore, there is currently a demand for more track capacity and, in the short term, the existing network is expected to deliver the increased capacity. The railway operators in the network have a large impact on train delays, and wheel failures are one large contributor of delays. Delays destroy capacity and, therefore, capacityconsuming failures, such as abnormal wheels, need to be minimised. This can be achieved by using appropriate condition monitoring for the wheels on the track to find potential capacity consumers before failures happen. Therefore, the condition of the wheel-rail interface is important, since the state of the wheel influences that of the rail and vice versa. The monitoring of rail profiles is already being performed, but the monitoring of wheel profiles is still in the development phase. This thesis treats the applications and performance assessment of a wheel profile measurement system (WPMS), and presents case studies focusing on its system and measurement performance. The proposed applications concern how the information from the WPMS can be integrated with information from other data sources and with physical models to obtain a true current picture of the wheel behaviour. The thesis investigates the measurement performance of the WPMS by using a paired T-test and a number of quality measures, e.g. the reproducibility and repeatability, the precision-to-tolerance ratio and the signal-to-noise ratio. In conclusion, this thesis shows that the WPMS works well with an expected level of reliability in a harsh climate with respect to its measurement and system performance. By combining other data with the data from the WPMS, potentially abnormal wheels can be found in an early stage if the proposed new maintenance limit for the wheel parameter of the flange height is implemented. Furthermore, through adding a physical model to the process, the real contact condition of the actual wheel-rail interface can be evaluated and measurement deviations can be found. However, the wheel parameters, as well as the entire profile, need a high measurement quality with little variation, which seems to be an issue with respect to the measurement performance when advanced calculations are to be done. Therefore, a new approach for evaluating measurement performance has been developed using established statistical tools and quality measures with predefined acceptance limits; with the help of this approach, one can differentiate between the variation in the measurements originating in the different measurement units and the variation originating in the wheels. This new approach can be applied to judge the measurement performance of wheel profile condition-monitoring systems, and can also be implemented for other condition-monitoring systems to evaluate their measurement performance. Finally, this approach promotes the development of a condition-based maintenance policy by providing more reliable information for maintenance decision makers.

碩士
國立成功大學
土木工程學系碩博士班
99
Sustainable development has become an important issue to the world since the impact of climate change and global warming. Many countries have developed their tools for evaluating the sustainability of new and existing buildings. Compared to the newly constructed buildings, existing ones usually require higher energy consumption and present higher pollution to the environment. Despite the high ratio of existing to newly constructed buildings, only the assessment tool for the newly constructed buildings is employed in Taiwan. Therefore, there is a need to develop an assessment tool specially designed for evaluating existing buildings. 　　By review literatures, the research purpose these objectives as follows: 1. Surveying the international sustainable building assessment tools, 2. Analyzing the development of green building assessment tool in Taiwan, 3. Investigating the importance level of expertise to the existing building factors, 4. Developing the environmental performance assessment system for the existing building in Taiwan and suggesting some improvements to the existing building. 　　The results of the research can be summarized into four parts: 1. Reviewing the development of sustainable building assessment tools domestically and internationally, and regard the tools as the basis and factors of developing the environmental performance assessment system for the existing building in Taiwan, 2. Applying the FDM (Fuzzy Delphi Method) and interviewing with experts and develop the framework of the environmental performance assessment system for the existing building as a result, 3. Applying the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and interviewing with experts and develop the relationship within the assessment system, 4. Taking an office building as an example to test the applicability of the assessment system, and analyze the benefit after applying the improvement works to this case.

Reused, recycled and regional product criteria within the LEED Green Building rating system are not based on comprehensive environmental assessments and do not ensure a measurable and consistent reduction of environmental burdens. A life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted for the LEED-certified Medical Sciences Building at the University of Victoria to illustrate how LCA can be used to improve these criteria. It was found that a lack of public LCA data for building products, insufficient reporting transparency and inconsistent data collection methodologies prevent a full incorporation of LCA into LEED. At present, LCA data can be used to determine what building products are generally associated with the highest environmental burdens per unit cost and thus require separate LEED criteria. Provided its deficiencies are rectified in the future, LCA can be fully incorporated into LEED to design environmental burden-based criteria that ensure a measurable and consistent reduction of environmental burdens.

An extensive number of studies have been conducted around the world to develop building performance assessment systems (BPASs) to measure the sustainability of building designs and the built environment in general. However, it has been revealed that most existing BPASs are single-dimensional in their structure; hence, inadequate in addressing many of the non-environmental priorities of emerging/developing countries. Malaysia is one of these countries in need of a context-specific system, especially when the necessary balance between socio-economic and ecological systems – to avoid further environmental damage – has not yet been reached. Therefore, the aim of this research is to develop an appropriate assessment framework that enables sustainability to be addressed and incorporated in office building development, relevant to emerging/developing countries, particularly the Malaysian context. Since sustainability and the framework must be context specific, this study adopted a mixedmethods approach, particularly using the exploratory sequential design i.e. a qualitative followed by a quantitative phase. The goal of the qualitative phase was to identify the most essential assessment criteria. This entailed a synthesis of results from research conducted in three stages: 1) wide-ranging literature review; 2) in-depth, semi-structured, open-ended interviews; and 3) focus groups discussion. The literature review findings from the first stage were synthesized to reveal the relevant assessment criteria and to formulate the requirements for developing the assessment framework. These criteria were further refined in the second and third stages conducted with experts from various backgrounds of the Malaysian construction industry. The criteria identified from, and refined in, the qualitative phase were then brought into the quantitative phase for the purpose of assigning their weighting levels. This phase involved a cross-sectional questionnaire survey in which more than 200 local building stakeholders participated. Synthesizing the above research, and the presentation of the tentative assessment framework to local experts for validation, this thesis finally proposes the Validated Comprehensive Malaysian Office Building Sustainability Assessment (MOBSA) Framework, composed of the followings attributes: 1) 88 Criteria, grouped under 17 Sub-Issues, which in turn are grouped under 3 sustainability Issues; 2) performance benchmarks for each criterion applicable to all phases of building assessment, derived based on theory and expert opinions; and 3) scoring system. The framework was applied to a case study building to identify criteria with missing input data. A comparison of the building’s overall results with those of an existing environmental-focused BPAS indicates that the building achieved a very high overall score in terms of its environmental design performance but scored lower when assessed based on the whole concept or three dimensions of sustainability. The MOBSA framework will potentially encourage a continuous learning process, enhancing stakeholders’ understanding of their roles and responsibilities in supporting sustainability throughout the life cycle of their projects; and, hence, stimulating needed changes in the Malaysian construction industry. This research also contributes to the development of a new model or approach, particularly appropriate for emerging/developing countries, through which a country-specific building sustainability assessment framework may be established that takes relevant priorities into account. In doing so, emerging/developing countries will ultimately have an appropriate basis to create sustainable construction industries, alongside efforts in developed countries to achieve global changes necessary for the future.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, 2011

Trabalho de Projeto de Mestrado, Informática, 2021, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências
O consumo de energia tem vindo a crescer na União Europeia todos os anos, sendo de prever que, a curto prazo, se torne insustentável. No sentido de prevenir este cenário, a Comissão Europeia decidiu definir uma Estratégia Energética para a União Europeia, destacando dois objetivos: aumentar a eficiência energética e promover a descarbonização. Atualmente, cerca de 72% dos edifícios existentes na União Europeia não são energeticamente eficientes. Este problema motivou-nos à pesquisa e criação de soluções que permitam uma melhor avaliação do consumo energético por dispositivos elétricos em edifícios residenciais. Neste contexto, o trabalho desenvolvido nesta tese consiste no desenho de uma solução de monitorização remota que recolhe informações de consumo energético recorrendo a técnicas de intrusive load monitoring, onde cada dispositivo elétrico individual é continuamente monitorizado quanto ao seu consumo energético. Esta abordagem permite compreender o consumo de energia, em tempo real e no dia-a-dia. Este conhecimento oferece-nos a capacidade de avaliar as diferenças existentes entre as medições laboratoriais (abordagem utilizada no sistema de rotulagem de equipamentos elétricos de acordo com a sua eficiência energética) e os consumos domésticos estimados. Para tal, nesta tese exploram-se abordagens de machine learning que pretendem descrever padrões de consumo, bem como reconhecer marcas, modelos e que funções os dispositivos elétricos estarão a executar. O principal objetivo deste trabalho é desenhar e implementar um protótipo de uma solução de IoT flexível e de baixo custo para avaliar equipamentos elétricos. Será utilizado um conjunto de sensores que recolherá dados relacionados com o consumo de energia e os entrega à plataforma SATO para serem posteriormente processados. O sistema será usado para monitorar aparelhos comumente encontrados em residências. Além disso, o sistema terá a capacidade de monitorizar o consumo de água de aparelhos que necessitem de abastecimento de água, como máquinas de lavar e de lavar louça. Os dados recolhidos serão usados para classificação dos aparelhos e modos de operação dos mesmos, em tempo real, permitindo fornecer relatórios sobre o consumo energético e modo de uso dos aparelhos, com grande grau de detalhe. Os relatórios podem incluir o uso de energia por vários ciclos de operação. Por exemplo, um aparelho pode executar vários ciclos de operação, como uma máquina de lavar que consume diferentes quantidades de energia elétrica e água consoante o modo de operação escolhido pelo utilizador. Toda a informação recolhida pode ser posteriormente utilizada em novos serviços de recomendação que ajudaram os utilizadores a definir melhor as configurações adequadas a um determinado dispositivo, minimizando o consumo energético e melhorando a sua eficiência. Adicionalmente toda esta informação pode ser utilizada para o diagnóstico de avarias e/ou manutenção preventiva. Em termos de proposta, o trabalho desenvolvido nesta tese tem as seguintes contribuições: Sistema de monitorização remota: o sistema de monitorização desenhado e implementado nesta tese avança o estado da arte dos sistemas de monitorização propostos pela literatura devido ao facto de incluir uma lista aprimorada de sensores que podem fornecer mais informações sobre os aparelhos, como o consumo de água da máquina de lavar. Além disso, é altamente flexível e pode ser implementado sem esforço em dispositivos novos ou antigos para monitorização de consumo de recursos. Conjunto de dados de consumo de energia de eletrodomésticos: Os dados recolhidos podem ser usados para futura investigação científica sobre o consumo de consumo de energia, padrões de uso de energia pelos eletrodomésticos e classificação dos mesmos. Abordagem de computação na borda (Edge Computing): O sistema de monitorização proposto explora o paradigma de computação na borda, onde parte da computação de preparação de dados é executada na borda, libertando recursos da nuvem para cálculos essenciais e que necessitem de mais poder computacional. Classificação precisa de dispositivos em tempo real: Coma proposta desenhada nesta tese, podemos classificar os dispositivos com alta precisão, usando os dados recolhidos pelo sistema de monitorização desenvolvido na tese. A abordagem proposta consegue classificar os dispositivos, que são monitorizados, com baixas taxas de falsos positivos. Para fácil compreensão do trabalho desenvolvido nesta tese, de seguida descreve-se a organização do documento. O Capítulo 1 apresenta o problema do consumo de energia na União Europeia e discute o aumento do consumo da mesma. O capítulo apresenta também os principais objetivos e contribuições do trabalho. No Capítulo 2 revê-se o trabalho relacionado em termos de sistema de monitorização remota, que inclui sensores, microcontroladores, processamento e filtragem de sinal. Por fim, este capítulo revê os trabalhos existentes na literatura relacionados com o problema de classificação de dispositivos usando abordagens de machine learning. No Capítulo 3 discutem-se os requisitos do sistema e o projeto de arquitetura conceitual do sistema. Neste capítulo é proposta uma solução de hardware, bem como, o software e firmware necessários à sua operação. Os algoritmos de machine learning necessários à classificação são também discutidos, em termos de configurações necessárias e adequadas ao problema que queremos resolver nesta tese. O Capítulo 4 representa a implementação de um protótipo que servirá de prova de conceito dos mecanismos discutidos no Capítulo 3. Neste capítulo discute-se também a forma de integração do protótipo na plataforma SATO. Com base na implementação feita, no Capítulo 5 especificam-se um conjunto de testes funcionais que permitem avaliar o desempenho da solução proposta e discutem-se os resultados obtidos a partir desses testes. Por fim, o Capítulo 6 apresenta as conclusões e o trabalho futuro que poderá ser desenvolvido partindo da solução atual.
Energy consumption is daily growing in European Union (EU). One day it will become hardly sustainable. For this not to happen European Commission decided to implement a European Union Strategy, emphasizing two objectives: increasing energy efficiency and decarbonization. About 72% of all buildings in the EU are not adapted to be energy efficient. This problem encourages us to create solutions that would help assess the energy consumption of appliances at residential houses. In this thesis, we proposed a system that collects data using an intrusive load monitoring approach, where each appliance will have a dedicated monitoring rig to collect the energy consumption data. The proposed solution will help us understand the real-life consumption of each device being monitored and compare the laboratory measurements observed versus domestic consumption estimated by the energy consumption based on the EU energy efficiency labelling system. The system proposed detects device consumption patterns and recognize its brand, model and what actions that appliance is executing, e.g., program of washing in a washing machine. To achieve our goal, we designed a hardware solution capable of collecting sensor data, filtering and send it to a cloud platform (the SATO platform). Additionally, in the cloud, we have a Machine Learning solution that deals with the data and recognizes the appliance and its operation modes. This recognition allows drawing a device/settings profile, which can detect faults and create a recommendation service that helps users define the better settings for a specific appliance, minimizing energy consumption and improving efficiency. Finally, we examine our prototype approach of the system implemented for targeted objectives in this project report. The document describes the experiments that we did and the final results. Our results show that we can identify the appliance and some of its operation modes. The proposed approach must be improved to make the identification of all operation modes. However, the current version of the system shows exciting results. It can be used to support the design of a new labelling system where daily operation measures can be used to support the new classification system. This way, we have an approach that allows improving the energy consumption, making builds more efficient.