Thermal performance of air-conditioned office buildings constructed with inclined walls in different climates in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chan, A.L.S.; Chow, T.T.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • A generic fully air-conditioned office building with inclined walls was modeled. • Simulations were run under climatic conditions in three modern cities in China. • Reduction in cooling load can outweigh the increase in heating load for Hong Kong. • Inclined angle of 30° is appropriate for inverted pyramidal building in Hong Kong. • Building constructed with inclined walls is not encouraged in Shanghai and Beijing. - Abstract: An inverted pyramidal building is built with inclined walls instead of the traditional vertical façades. In terms of thermal performance, an inverted pyramidal building can provide a self-shading effect against the beam solar radiation, leading to a reduction in solar heat gain as well as building cooling load. On the other hand, the heating requirement of an inverted pyramidal building will be increased in winter. There is a strong dependency of building performance on the climatic condition. In this study, a generic air-conditioned office building with inclined walls set at different inclination angles was modeled using a building energy simulation program. Computer simulations were run to assess the thermal performance of the building constructed with inclined walls under different climatic conditions in three modern cities in China–Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. The results reveal that for the building cases with inclined walls set at different inclination angles in subtropical Hong Kong, the saving in annual cooling load ranges from 0.6% to 10.9% and can outweigh the increase in heating load. Moreover, an inclination angle of 30° was found as a better design option for an inverted pyramidal building with symmetrical layout design under the climatic condition in Hong Kong. For the other two cities: Shanghai and Beijing, the saving in cooling load due to self-shading effect cannot offset the increased heating requirement. Design and construction of an inverted pyramidal building is not encouraged in these two

Measurements of radon exhalation from building materials under model climate conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jann, O.; Schneider, U.; Koeppke, J.; Lehmann, R.

2003-01-01

The inhalation of 222 Rn (radon) is the most important reason for lung cancer as a result of smoking. The cause for enhanced radon concentration in the air of buildings is mostly the building ground. But also building products can lead to increased radon concentrations in indoor air when the products contain raw materials or residues with higher contents of 226 Ra (radium), especially in combination with low air exchange rates. For a realistic estimation of radon concentrations it is helpful to perform emission tests on the basis of emission test chambers. Emissions test chambers are already used successfully for the measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOC) emitted from different materials and products. The analysis of radon in air was performed with a test device based on the principle of ionisation chamber (ATMOS 12 D). It could be show that radon concentrations emitted from building materials can be determined reliably if certain boundary conditions such as temperature, relative humidity and especially area specific air flow rate are met. It was also shown that reduced area specific air flow rates or reduced air exchange rates lead to higher radon concentrations. It is remarkable that no conclusion can be drawn from the activity concentration of radium to the radon concentration in the air. Therefore in some cases much higher radon concentrations in air were determined that had been expected. Obviously diffusion within the material plays an important role. (orig.)

BIM. Building Information Model. Special issue; BIM. Building Information Model. Themanummer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Van Gelder, A.L.A. [Arta and Consultancy, Lage Zwaluwe (Netherlands); Van den Eijnden, P.A.A. [Stichting Marktwerking Installatietechniek, Zoetermeer (Netherlands); Veerman, J.; Mackaij, J.; Borst, E. [Royal Haskoning DHV, Nijmegen (Netherlands); Kruijsse, P.M.D. [Wolter en Dros, Amersfoort (Netherlands); Buma, W. [Merlijn Media, Waddinxveen (Netherlands); Bomhof, F.; Willems, P.H.; Boehms, M. [TNO, Delft (Netherlands); Hofman, M.; Verkerk, M. [ISSO, Rotterdam (Netherlands); Bodeving, M. [VIAC Installatie Adviseurs, Houten (Netherlands); Van Ravenswaaij, J.; Van Hoven, H. [BAM Techniek, Bunnik (Netherlands); Boeije, I.; Schalk, E. [Stabiplan, Bodegraven (Netherlands)

2012-11-15

A series of 14 articles illustrates the various aspects of the Building Information Model (BIM). The essence of BIM is to capture information about the building process and the building product. [Dutch] In 14 artikelen worden diverse aspecten m.b.t. het Building Information Model (BIM) belicht. De essentie van BIM is het vastleggen van informatie over het bouwproces en het bouwproduct.

Analysis of flammability in the attached buildings to containment under severe accident conditions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rosa, J.C. de la, E-mail: juan-carlos.de-la-rosa-blul@ec.europa.eu [European Commission Joint Research Centre (Netherlands); Fornós, Joan, E-mail: jfornosh@anacnv.com [Asociación Nuclear Ascó-Vandellós (Spain)

2016-11-15

Highlights: • Analysis of flammability conditions in buildings outside containment. • Stepwise approach easily applicable for any kind of containment and attached buildings layout. • Detailed application for real plant conditions has been included. - Abstract: Right after the events unfolded in Fukushima Daiichi, the European Union countries agreed in subjecting Nuclear Power Plants to Stress Tests as developed by WENRA and ENSREG organizations. One of the results as implemented in many European countries derived from such tests consisted of mandatory technical instructions issued by nuclear regulatory bodies on the analysis of potential risk of flammable gases in attached buildings to containment. The current study addresses the key aspects of the analysis of flammable gases leaking to auxiliary buildings attached to Westinghouse large-dry PWR containment for the specific situation where mitigating systems to prevent flammable gases to grow up inside containment are available, and containment integrity is preserved – hence avoiding isolation system failure. It also provides a full practical exercise where lessons learned derived from the current study – hence limited to the imposed boundary conditions – are applied. The leakage of gas from the containment to the support buildings is based on separate calculations using the EPRI-owned Modular Accident Analysis Program, MAAP4.07. The FATE™ code (facility Flow, Aerosol, Thermal, and Explosion) was used to model the transport and distribution of leaked flammable gas (H{sub 2} and CO) in the penetration buildings. FATE models the significant mixing (dilution) which occurs as the released buoyant gas rises and entrains air. Also, FATE accounts for the condensation of steam on room surfaces, an effect which acts to concentrate flammable gas. The results of the analysis show that during a severe accident, flammable conditions are unlikely to occur in compartmentalized buildings such as the one used in the

Analysis of flammability in the attached buildings to containment under severe accident conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosa, J.C. de la; Fornós, Joan

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Analysis of flammability conditions in buildings outside containment. • Stepwise approach easily applicable for any kind of containment and attached buildings layout. • Detailed application for real plant conditions has been included. - Abstract: Right after the events unfolded in Fukushima Daiichi, the European Union countries agreed in subjecting Nuclear Power Plants to Stress Tests as developed by WENRA and ENSREG organizations. One of the results as implemented in many European countries derived from such tests consisted of mandatory technical instructions issued by nuclear regulatory bodies on the analysis of potential risk of flammable gases in attached buildings to containment. The current study addresses the key aspects of the analysis of flammable gases leaking to auxiliary buildings attached to Westinghouse large-dry PWR containment for the specific situation where mitigating systems to prevent flammable gases to grow up inside containment are available, and containment integrity is preserved – hence avoiding isolation system failure. It also provides a full practical exercise where lessons learned derived from the current study – hence limited to the imposed boundary conditions – are applied. The leakage of gas from the containment to the support buildings is based on separate calculations using the EPRI-owned Modular Accident Analysis Program, MAAP4.07. The FATE™ code (facility Flow, Aerosol, Thermal, and Explosion) was used to model the transport and distribution of leaked flammable gas (H_2 and CO) in the penetration buildings. FATE models the significant mixing (dilution) which occurs as the released buoyant gas rises and entrains air. Also, FATE accounts for the condensation of steam on room surfaces, an effect which acts to concentrate flammable gas. The results of the analysis show that during a severe accident, flammable conditions are unlikely to occur in compartmentalized buildings such as the one used in the

Environmental Conditions and Occupant Perceptions in European Office Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stoops, J.L. [Chalmers Univ. of Tech., Goeteborg (Sweden). Dept. of Building Services Engineering

2003-03-01

This is a preliminary report regarding a portion of the environmental conditions and occupant comfort perceptions from a five nation, 26 building European field data collection effort. Approximately 1,000 participants were involved in this project which included twelve monthly visits to each building. Climate, building and cultural variation will be illustrated for the five countries involved - France, Greece, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom (UK). Each country used identical instrumentation; questionnaires and experimental protocols imbedded in a custom hardware/software system. The comfort survey was based on the ASHRAE model. The physical measurements included air temperature, globe temperature, relative humidity, air movement, CO{sub 2}, light, and sound levels. Where possible, connections and explanations between variables are made. Potential energy and policy ramifications are illustrated. (The publication includes two reports from EU JOULE III projects JOE3CT970066 'Smart controls and thermal comfort project)

Modelling Multivariate Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity with the Double Smooth Transition Conditional Correlation GARCH Model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Silvennoinen, Annastiina; Teräsvirta, Timo

In this paper we propose a multivariate GARCH model with a time-varying conditional correlation structure. The new Double Smooth Transition Conditional Correlation GARCH model extends the Smooth Transition Conditional Correlation GARCH model of Silvennoinen and Ter¨asvirta (2005) by including...... another variable according to which the correlations change smoothly between states of constant correlations. A Lagrange multiplier test is derived to test the constancy of correlations against the DSTCC-GARCH model, and another one to test for another transition in the STCC-GARCH framework. In addition......, other specification tests, with the aim of aiding the model building procedure, are considered. Analytical expressions for the test statistics and the required derivatives are provided. The model is applied to a selection of world stock indices, and it is found that time is an important factor affecting...

Relating Building and Classroom Conditions to Student Achievement in Virginia's Elementary Schools

OpenAIRE

Lanham III, James Warren

1999-01-01

The relationships between student achievement and a number of variables relating to building and classroom conditions in Virginia elementary schools were examined. A systematic random sample of 300 schools was selected from all elementary schools in Virginia with grades three and five. Data on building condition, classroom condition, and demographics were collected with "An Assessment of Building and Classroom Conditions in Elementary Schools in Virginia." Building prin...

A Learning Framework for Control-Oriented Modeling of Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rubio-Herrero, Javier; Chandan, Vikas; Siegel, Charles M.; Vishnu, Abhinav; Vrabie, Draguna L.

2018-01-18

Buildings consume a significant amount of energy worldwide. Several building optimization and control use cases require models of energy consumption which are control oriented, have high predictive capability, imposes minimal data pre-processing requirements, and have the ability to be adapted continuously to account for changing conditions as new data becomes available. Data driven modeling techniques, that have been investigated so far, while promising in the context of buildings, have been unable to simultaneously satisfy all the requirements mentioned above. In this context, deep learning techniques such as Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) hold promise, empowered by advanced computational capabilities and big data opportunities. In this paper, we propose a deep learning based methodology for the development of control oriented models for building energy management and test in on data from a real building. Results show that the proposed methodology outperforms other data driven modeling techniques significantly. We perform a detailed analysis of the proposed methodology along dimensions such as topology, sensitivity, and downsampling. Lastly, we conclude by envisioning a building analytics suite empowered by the proposed deep framework, that can drive several use cases related to building energy management.

Dynamic analysis of reactor containment building using axisymmetric finite element model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thakkar, S.K.; Dubey, R.N.

1989-01-01

The structural safety of nuclear reactor building during earthquake is of great importance in view of possibility of radiation hazards. The rational evaluation of forces and displacements in various portions of structure and foundation during strong ground motion is most important for safe performance and economic design of the reactor building. The accuracy of results of dynamic analysis is naturally dependent on the type of mathematical model employed. Three types of mathematical models are employed for dynamic analysis of reactor building beam model axisymmetric finite element model and three dimensional model. In this paper emphasis is laid on axisymmetric model. This model of containment building is considered a reinfinement over conventional beam model of the structure. The nuclear reactor building on a rocky foundation is considered herein. The foundation-structure interaction is relatively less in this condition. The objective of the paper is to highlight the significance of modelling of non-axisymmetric portion of building, such as reactor internals by equivalent axisymmetric body, on the structural response of the building

Fuzzy logic control of air-conditioning system in residential buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdel-Hamid Attia

2015-09-01

Full Text Available There has been a rising concern in reducing the energy consumption in building. Heating ventilation and air condition system is the biggest consumer of energy in building. In this study, fuzzy logic control of the air conditioning system of building for efficient energy operation and comfortable environment is investigated. A theoretical model of the fan coil unit (FCU and the heat transfer between air and coolant fluid is derived. The controlled variables are the room temperature and relative humidity and control consequents are the percentage of chilled and hot water flow rates at summer and the percentage of hot water and steam injected flow rates at winter. A computer simulation has been conducted and fuzzy control results are compared with that of conventional Proportional-Integral-Derivative control. It was found that the proposed control strategy satisfies the space load and at the same time to achieve the comfort zone, as defined by the ASHRAE code. Meanwhile PID control fails to adjust the room temperature at part-load operations. It has been demonstrated that fuzzy controller operation is more efficient and consumes less energy than PID control.

Automated model building

CERN Document Server

Caferra, Ricardo; Peltier, Nicholas

2004-01-01

This is the first book on automated model building, a discipline of automated deduction that is of growing importance Although models and their construction are important per se, automated model building has appeared as a natural enrichment of automated deduction, especially in the attempt to capture the human way of reasoning The book provides an historical overview of the field of automated deduction, and presents the foundations of different existing approaches to model construction, in particular those developed by the authors Finite and infinite model building techniques are presented The main emphasis is on calculi-based methods, and relevant practical results are provided The book is of interest to researchers and graduate students in computer science, computational logic and artificial intelligence It can also be used as a textbook in advanced undergraduate courses

Modeling of Dynamic Responses in Building Insulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Antonyová

2015-10-01

Full Text Available In this research a measurement systemwas developedfor monitoring humidity and temperature in the cavity between the wall and the insulating material in the building envelope. This new technology does not disturb the insulating material during testing. The measurement system can also be applied to insulation fixed ten or twenty years earlier and sufficiently reveals the quality of the insulation. A mathematical model is proposed to characterize the dynamic responses in the cavity between the wall and the building insulation as influenced by weather conditions.These dynamic responses are manifested as a delay of both humidity and temperature changes in the cavity when compared with the changes in the ambient surrounding of the building. The process is then modeled through numerical methods and statistical analysis of the experimental data obtained using the new system of measurement.

Models test on dynamic structure-structure interaction of nuclear power plant buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kitada, Y.; Hirotani, T.

1999-01-01

A reactor building of an NPP (nuclear power plant) is generally constructed closely adjacent to a turbine building and other buildings such as the auxiliary building, and in increasing numbers of NPPs, multiple plants are being planned and constructed closely on a single site. In these situations, adjacent buildings are considered to influence each other through the soil during earthquakes and to exhibit dynamic behaviour different from that of separate buildings, because those buildings in NPP are generally heavy and massive. The dynamic interaction between buildings during earthquake through the soil is termed here as 'dynamic cross interaction (DCI)'. In order to comprehend DCI appropriately, forced vibration tests and earthquake observation are needed using closely constructed building models. Standing on this background, Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation (NUPEC) had planned the project to investigate the DCI effect in 1993 after the preceding SSI (soil-structure interaction) investigation project, 'model tests on embedment effect of reactor building'. The project consists of field and laboratory tests. The field test is being carried out using three different building construction conditions, e.g. a single reactor building to be used for the comparison purposes as for a reference, two same reactor buildings used to evaluate pure DCI effects, and two different buildings, reactor and turbine building models to evaluate DCI effects under the actual plant conditions. Forced vibration tests and earthquake observations are planned in the field test. The laboratory test is planned to evaluate basic characteristics of the DCI effects using simple soil model made of silicon rubber and structure models made of aluminum. In this test, forced vibration tests and shaking table tests are planned. The project was started in April 1994 and will be completed in March 2002. This paper describes an outline and the summary of the current status of this project. (orig.)

The Impact of School Building Conditions on Student Absenteeism in Upstate New York

Science.gov (United States)

Hwang, Syni-An; Fitzgerald, Edward F.; Kielb, Christine; Lin, Shao

2010-01-01

Objectives. We investigated Upstate New York school building conditions and examined the associations between school absenteeism and building condition problems. Methods. We merged data from the 2005 Building Condition Survey of Upstate New York schools with 2005 New York State Education Department student absenteeism data at the individual school level and evaluated associations between building conditions and absenteeism at or above the 90th percentile. Results. After adjustment for confounders, student absenteeism was associated with visible mold (odds ratio [OR] = 2.22; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.34, 3.68), humidity (OR = 3.07; 95% CI = 1.37, 6.89), poor ventilation (OR = 3.10; 95% CI = 1.79, 5.37), vermin (OR = 2.23; 95% CI = 1.32, 3.76), 6 or more individual building condition problems (OR = 2.97; 95% CI = 1.84, 4.79), and building system or structural problems related to these conditions. Schools in lower socioeconomic districts and schools attended by younger students showed the strongest associations between poor building conditions and absenteeism. Conclusions. We found associations between student absenteeism and adverse school building conditions. Future studies should confirm these findings and prioritize strategies for school condition improvements. PMID:20634471

Numerical model for stack gas diffusion in terrain with buildings. Variations in air flow and gas concentration with additional building near stack

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sada, Koichi; Michioka, Takenobu; Ichikawa, Yoichi; Komiyama, Sumito; Numata, Kunio

2009-01-01

A numerical simulation method for predicting atmospheric flow and stack gas diffusion using a calculation domain of several km around a stack under complex terrain conditions containing buildings has been developed. The turbulence closure technique using a modified k-ε-type model without a hydrostatic approximation was used for flow calculation, and some of the calculation grids near the ground were treated as buildings using a terrain-following coordinate system. Stack gas diffusion was predicted using the Lagrangian particle model, that is, the stack gas was represented by trajectories of released particles. The developed numerical model was applied to a virtual terrain and building conditions in this study prior to the applications of a numerical model for real terrain and building conditions. The height of the additional building (H a ), located about 200 m leeward from the stack, was varied (i.e., H a =0, 20, 30 and 50 m), and its effects on airflow and the concentration of stack gas at a released height of 75 m were calculated. Furthermore, effective stack height, which was used in the safety analysis of atmospheric diffusion for nuclear facilities in Japan, was evaluated from the calculated ground-level concentration of stack gas. The cavity region behind the additional building was calculated, and turbulence near the cavity was observed to decrease when the additional building was present. According to these flow variations with the additional building, tracer gas tended to diffuse to the ground surface rapidly with the additional building at the leeward position of the cavity, and the ground-level stack gas concentration along the plume axis also increased with the height of the additional building. However, the variations in effective stack height with the height of the additional building were relatively small and ranged within several m in this study. (author)

Air conditioning device for reactor buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kikuchi, Shiro.

1982-01-01

Purpose: To decrease the opening areas of pipe lines for an air conditioning device at the portions passing through the shielding walls of a reactor building for a FBR type reactor, as well as reduce the size of the building. Constitution: Airs in the building for containing reactor are liquefied in an air liquefying mechanism. The liquefied airs are sent by way of pipe lines to each of evaporators, wherein each of the chambers are cooled because of latent heat of evaporation and evaporated airs are released to each of the chambers. The airs released to each of the chambers are collected into an exhaust chamber and sent by way of a duct to the air liquefying mechanism and liquefied again. Since the volume of the liquefied airs may be smaller than the amount conventionally required for usual cooled airs, the pipe lines passing through the shielding walls of the building can be of smaller diameter. This can decrease the opening areas of the pipe lines at the portions passing through the walls of the shieldings and, since the opening areas are smaller, the structure of the radiation shieldings can be simplified in these portions. Further, since the space of the pipe lines in the building is reduced extremely, the size of the building can be reduced. (Moriyama, K.)

Dynamic analysis of the reactor building for soft (Kozloduy) and hard (Temelin) soil conditions and different seismic loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krutzik, N.

1995-01-01

Analyses were conducted for the reactor building to determine the dynamic responses of the coupled system, soil and structure and the forces in the characteristic structural members. This report summarizes the results of structural dynamic analyses derived for soft and hard soil conditions by the modal time history method using substructure models as well as (for soft soil conditions) in the frequency domain using complex (coupled) models of the soil and the structure. The mathematical model of the reactor building is represented as a lumped mass beam model. The capabilities of the soil were represented by means of global frequency independent springs and dampers (substructure models) or by an appropriate final element model. The results of the above-mentioned analysis presented in this report comprise in particular the maximum values of accelerations, displacements and internal forces as well as the acceleration response spectra for the relevant building regions. The time domain (modal time history) calculations were performed for real soil conditions which corresponds to the site Kozloduy (soft) and Temelin (hard). As seismic input data the corresponding free-field data here been used. The dynamic response obtained for the soft-soil conditions using both type of (substructure and complex) models were compared and demonstrated in one plot. Similar comparison were performed for the results obtained for soft and hard soil conditions

Comparison of sensorless dimming control based on building modeling and solar power generation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Naeun; Kim, Jonghun; Jang, Cheolyong; Sung, Yoondong; Jeong, Hakgeun

2015-01-01

Artificial lighting in office buildings accounts for about 30% of the total building energy consumption. Lighting energy is important to reduce building energy consumption since artificial lighting typically has a relatively large energy conversion factor. Therefore, previous studies have proposed a dimming control using daylight. When applied dimming control, method based on building modeling does not need illuminance sensors. Thus, it can be applied to existing buildings that do not have illuminance sensors. However, this method does not accurately reflect real-time weather conditions. On the other hand, solar power generation from a PV (photovoltaic) panel reflects real-time weather conditions. The PV panel as the sensor improves the accuracy of dimming control by reflecting disturbance. Therefore, we compared and analyzed two types of sensorless dimming controls: those based on the building modeling and those that based on solar power generation using PV panels. In terms of energy savings, we found that a dimming control based on building modeling is more effective than that based on solar power generation by about 6%. However, dimming control based on solar power generation minimizes the inconvenience to occupants and can also react to changes in solar radiation entering the building caused by dirty window. - Highlights: • We conducted sensorless dimming control based on solar power generation. • Dimming controls using building modeling and solar power generation were compared. • The real time weather conditions can be considered by using solar power generation. • Dimming control using solar power generation minimizes inconvenience to occupants

Comparison of Building Energy Modeling Programs: Building Loads

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhu, Dandan [Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Hong, Tianzhen [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Yan, Da [Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Wang, Chuang [Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)

2012-06-01

identify the differences in solution algorithms, modeling assumptions and simplifications. Identifying inputs of each program and their default values or algorithms for load simulation was a critical step. These tend to be overlooked by users, but can lead to large discrepancies in simulation results. As weather data was an important input, weather file formats and weather variables used by each program were summarized. Some common mistakes in the weather data conversion process were discussed. ASHRAE Standard 140-2007 tests were carried out to test the fundamental modeling capabilities of the load calculations of the three BEMPs, where inputs for each test case were strictly defined and specified. The tests indicated that the cooling and heating load results of the three BEMPs fell mostly within the range of spread of results from other programs. Based on ASHRAE 140-2007 test results, the finer differences between DeST and EnergyPlus were further analyzed by designing and conducting additional tests. Potential key influencing factors (such as internal gains, air infiltration, convection coefficients of windows and opaque surfaces) were added one at a time to a simple base case with an analytical solution, to compare their relative impacts on load calculation results. Finally, special tests were designed and conducted aiming to ascertain the potential limitations of each program to perform accurate load calculations. The heat balance module was tested for both single and double zone cases. Furthermore, cooling and heating load calculations were compared between the three programs by varying the heat transfer between adjacent zones, the occupancy of the building, and the air-conditioning schedule.

Optimization and Performance Study of Select Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning Technologies for Commercial Buildings

Science.gov (United States)

Kamal, Rajeev

Buildings contribute a significant part to the electricity demand profile and peak demand for the electrical utilities. The addition of renewable energy generation adds additional variability and uncertainty to the power system. Demand side management in the buildings can help improve the demand profile for the utilities by shifting some of the demand from peak to off-peak times. Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning contribute around 45% to the overall demand of a building. This research studies two strategies for reducing the peak as well as shifting some demand from peak to off-peak periods in commercial buildings: 1. Use of gas heat pumps in place of electric heat pumps, and 2. Shifting demand for air conditioning from peak to off-peak by thermal energy storage in chilled water and ice. The first part of this study evaluates the field performance of gas engine-driven heat pumps (GEHP) tested in a commercial building in Florida. Four GEHP units of 8 Tons of Refrigeration (TR) capacity each providing air-conditioning to seven thermal zones in a commercial building, were instrumented for measuring their performance. The operation of these GEHPs was recorded for ten months, analyzed and compared with prior results reported in the literature. The instantaneous COPunit of these systems varied from 0.1 to 1.4 during typical summer week operation. The COP was low because the gas engines for the heat pumps were being used for loads that were much lower than design capacity which resulted in much lower efficiencies than expected. The performance of equivalent electric heat pump was simulated from a building energy model developed to mimic the measured building loads. An economic comparison of GEHPs and conventional electrical heat pumps was done based on the measured and simulated results. The average performance of the GEHP units was estimated to lie between those of EER-9.2 and EER-11.8 systems. The performance of GEHP systems suffers due to lower efficiency at

Case Study of a Nearly Zero Energy Building in Italian Climatic Conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hassan Saeed Khan

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The building sector is an important stakeholder in the energy and environmental scenario of any country. It continues to grow across the world due to factors such as population growth, and economic and infrastructure development. Within the European Union, buildings account for 40% of the total energy requirements and 30% of carbon dioxide emissions. The building sector is keen to improve its sustainability standards and also to help achieve the 20-20-20 targets set by the European Union. The present work aims to design a nearly zero energy sports gymnasium building in Calolziocorte, Italy. Various sustainability techniques are applied in an integrated design project approach using ECOTECT software to undertake the energy modelling exercise. Firstly, the base-case is modelled with conventional building materials and the total energy demand is calculated. Duly considering the local climatic conditions, sustainable materials are chosen for walls, the floor, the roof, and windows and a 38% reduction is noted in the total energy demand of the building compared to the base-case. The impact of louvers as a passive design technique has also been examined on the total energy demand of the building. The monthly load/discomfort analysis is undertaken for various individual functions inside the building to identify the critical areas that consume more energy. The monthly load/discomfort analysis is performed with the proposed materials and the air infiltration rate is improved through the building envelope and 63% reduction is noted in the total energy demand of the building compared to the base-case. A solar access analysis is conducted to understand the on-site energy production and then the building net energy demand is calculated, which is reduced to 90% compared to the base-case.

Irregular Shaped Building Design Optimization with Building Information Modelling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lee Xia Sheng

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This research is to recognise the function of Building Information Modelling (BIM in design optimization for irregular shaped buildings. The study focuses on a conceptual irregular shaped “twisted” building design similar to some existing sculpture-like architectures. Form and function are the two most important aspects of new buildings, which are becoming more sophisticated as parts of equally sophisticated “systems” that we are living in. Nowadays, it is common to have irregular shaped or sculpture-like buildings which are very different when compared to regular buildings. Construction industry stakeholders are facing stiff challenges in many aspects such as buildability, cost effectiveness, delivery time and facility management when dealing with irregular shaped building projects. Building Information Modelling (BIM is being utilized to enable architects, engineers and constructors to gain improved visualization for irregular shaped buildings; this has a purpose of identifying critical issues before initiating physical construction work. In this study, three variations of design options differing in rotating angle: 30 degrees, 60 degrees and 90 degrees are created to conduct quantifiable comparisons. Discussions are focused on three major aspects including structural planning, usable building space, and structural constructability. This research concludes that Building Information Modelling is instrumental in facilitating design optimization for irregular shaped building. In the process of comparing different design variations, instead of just giving “yes or no” type of response, stakeholders can now easily visualize, evaluate and decide to achieve the right balance based on their own criteria. Therefore, construction project stakeholders are empowered with superior evaluation and decision making capability.

Modeling of heat and mass transfer in lateritic building envelopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meukam, Pierre

2004-10-01

The aim of the present work is to investigate the behavior of building envelopes made of local lateritic soil bricks subjected to different climatic conditions. The analysis is developed for the prediction of the temperature, relative humidity and water content behavior within the walls. The building envelopes studied in this work consist of lateritic soil bricks with incorporation of natural pozzolan or sawdust in order to obtain small thermal conductivity and low-density materials, and limit the heat transfer between the atmospheric climate and the inside environment. In order to describe coupled heat and moisture transfer in wet porous materials, the coupled equations were solved by the introduction of diffusion coefficients. A numerical model HMtrans, developed for prediction of beat and moisture transfer in multi-layered building components, was used to simulate the temperature, water content and relative humidity profiles within the building envelopes. The results allow the prediction of the duration of the exposed building walls to the local weather conditions. They show that for any of three climatic conditions considered, relative humidity and water content do not exceed 87% and 5% respectively. There is therefore minimum possibility of water condensation in the materials studied. The durability of building envelopes made of lateritic soil bricks with incorporation of natural pozzolan or sawdust is not strongly affected by the climatic conditions in tropical and equatorial regions. (author)

SUSY GUT Model Building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raby, Stuart

2008-01-01

In this talk I discuss the evolution of SUSY GUT model building as I see it. Starting with 4 dimensional model building, I then consider orbifold GUTs in 5 dimensions and finally orbifold GUTs embedded into the E 8 xE 8 heterotic string.

Comparison of methods used in European countries to assess buildings' condition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vilhena, A.; Costa Branco De Oliveira Pedro, J.A.; De Brito, J.

2011-01-01

This paper presents a comparative analysis of methods used in European countries to assess buildings’ condition. The following methods were compared: a Portuguese method to assess buildings condition, an English housing health and safety rating system, a French method to assess buildings that may be

Model calibration for building energy efficiency simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mustafaraj, Giorgio; Marini, Dashamir; Costa, Andrea; Keane, Marcus

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Developing a 3D model relating to building architecture, occupancy and HVAC operation. • Two calibration stages developed, final model providing accurate results. • Using an onsite weather station for generating the weather data file in EnergyPlus. • Predicting thermal behaviour of underfloor heating, heat pump and natural ventilation. • Monthly energy saving opportunities related to heat pump of 20–27% was identified. - Abstract: This research work deals with an Environmental Research Institute (ERI) building where an underfloor heating system and natural ventilation are the main systems used to maintain comfort condition throughout 80% of the building areas. Firstly, this work involved developing a 3D model relating to building architecture, occupancy and HVAC operation. Secondly, the calibration methodology, which consists of two levels, was then applied in order to insure accuracy and reduce the likelihood of errors. To further improve the accuracy of calibration a historical weather data file related to year 2011, was created from the on-site local weather station of ERI building. After applying the second level of calibration process, the values of Mean bias Error (MBE) and Cumulative Variation of Root Mean Squared Error (CV(RMSE)) on hourly based analysis for heat pump electricity consumption varied within the following ranges: (MBE) hourly from −5.6% to 7.5% and CV(RMSE) hourly from 7.3% to 25.1%. Finally, the building was simulated with EnergyPlus to identify further possibilities of energy savings supplied by a water to water heat pump to underfloor heating system. It found that electricity consumption savings from the heat pump can vary between 20% and 27% on monthly bases

Building information modelling (BIM)

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Conradie, Dirk CU

2009-02-01

Full Text Available The concept of a Building Information Model (BIM) also known as a Building Product Model (BPM) is nothing new. A short article on BIM will never cover the entire filed, because it is a particularly complex filed that is recently beginning to receive...

Actual building energy use patterns and their implications for predictive modeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heidarinejad, Mohammad; Cedeño-Laurent, Jose G.; Wentz, Joshua R.; Rekstad, Nicholas M.; Spengler, John D.; Srebric, Jelena

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Developed three building categories based on energy use patterns of campus buildings. • Evaluated implication of temporal energy data granularity on predictive modeling. • Demonstrated importance of monitoring daily chilled water consumption. • Identified interval electricity data as an indicator of building operation schedules. • Demonstrated a calibration process for energy modeling of a campus building. - Abstract: The main goal of this study is to understand the patterns in which commercial buildings consume energy, rather than evaluating building energy use based on aggregate utility bills typically linked to building principal tenant activity or occupancy type. The energy consumption patterns define buildings as externally-load, internally-load, or mixed-load dominated buildings. Penn State and Harvard campuses serve as case studies for this particular research project. The buildings in these two campuses use steam, chilled water, and electricity as energy commodities and maintain databases of different resolutions to include minute, hourly, daily, and monthly data instances depending on the commodity and available data acquisition system. The results of this study show monthly steam consumption directly correlates to outdoor environmental conditions for 88% of the studied buildings, while chilled water consumption has negligible correlation to the outdoor environmental conditions. Thus, in terms of monthly chilled water consumption, 86% of buildings are internally-load and mixed-load dominated, respectively. Chilled water consumption is better suited for the daily analyses compared to the monthly and hourly analyses. While the influence of building operation schedules affects the analyses at the hourly level, the monthly chilled water consumptions are not good indicators of the building energy consumption patterns. Electricity consumption at the monthly (or seasonal) level can support the building energy simulation tools for the

Model building in the free-fermionic formulation of superstrings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dreiner, H.K.

1989-01-01

In this thesis the author presents results in the free fermionic formulation of string theory in four space-time dimensions as presented by I. Antoniadis and C. Bachas. First he discusses how to build N = 1 space-time supersymmetric models. He also uses the low-energy requirements of N = 1 space-time supersymmetry as well as chiral space-time fermions to show that the spectrum does not contain any massless scalar fields which transform under the adjoint representation of the gauge group. He also discusses the consequences of these results for model building efforts. In Chapter 1 and 2 he introduces the concepts of string theory as well as the notation which he will be using throughout the following chapters. In Chapter 3 he reviews the free fermionic formulation of string theory as presented by [AB] including the rules for model building. He first classifies all the possible single boundary conditions for the free fermionic fields in the theory and then classifies the cases for which two or more distinct boundary conditions are compatible. In Chapter 4 he uses the rules from Chapter 3 to construct several toy models, which show what possible gauge groups can arise in the theory and how they can be constructed. In Chapter 5 he uses the classification of the boundary conditions for the fermionic fields to classify all the models with N = 4 spacetime supersymmetry. He then discusses the different possibilities to obtain models with N = 2, 1, and 0 spacetime supersymmetry. He shows that the requirement of N = 1 spacetime supersymmetry severely restricts the allowed constructions of the world-sheet supercharge. In Chapter 6 he proves, using the requirement of N = 1 space-time supersymmetry, that the spectrum does not contain any massless scalar fields transforming as the adjoint representation of the gauge group

Modeling of HVAC operational faults in building performance simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Rongpeng; Hong, Tianzhen

2017-01-01

Highlights: •Discuss significance of capturing operational faults in existing buildings. •Develop a novel feature in EnergyPlus to model operational faults of HVAC systems. •Compare three approaches to faults modeling using EnergyPlus. •A case study demonstrates the use of the fault-modeling feature. •Future developments of new faults are discussed. -- Abstract: Operational faults are common in the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems of existing buildings, leading to a decrease in energy efficiency and occupant comfort. Various fault detection and diagnostic methods have been developed to identify and analyze HVAC operational faults at the component or subsystem level. However, current methods lack a holistic approach to predicting the overall impacts of faults at the building level—an approach that adequately addresses the coupling between various operational components, the synchronized effect between simultaneous faults, and the dynamic nature of fault severity. This study introduces the novel development of a fault-modeling feature in EnergyPlus which fills in the knowledge gap left by previous studies. This paper presents the design and implementation of the new feature in EnergyPlus and discusses in detail the fault-modeling challenges faced. The new fault-modeling feature enables EnergyPlus to quantify the impacts of faults on building energy use and occupant comfort, thus supporting the decision making of timely fault corrections. Including actual building operational faults in energy models also improves the accuracy of the baseline model, which is critical in the measurement and verification of retrofit or commissioning projects. As an example, EnergyPlus version 8.6 was used to investigate the impacts of a number of typical operational faults in an office building across several U.S. climate zones. The results demonstrate that the faults have significant impacts on building energy performance as well as on occupant

Structural observability analysis and EKF based parameter estimation of building heating models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D.W.U. Perera

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Research for enhanced energy-efficient buildings has been given much recognition in the recent years owing to their high energy consumptions. Increasing energy needs can be precisely controlled by practicing advanced controllers for building Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC systems. Advanced controllers require a mathematical building heating model to operate, and these models need to be accurate and computationally efficient. One main concern associated with such models is the accurate estimation of the unknown model parameters. This paper presents the feasibility of implementing a simplified building heating model and the computation of physical parameters using an off-line approach. Structural observability analysis is conducted using graph-theoretic techniques to analyze the observability of the developed system model. Then Extended Kalman Filter (EKF algorithm is utilized for parameter estimates using the real measurements of a single-zone building. The simulation-based results confirm that even with a simple model, the EKF follows the state variables accurately. The predicted parameters vary depending on the inputs and disturbances.

AUTOMATED SYSTEM OF OPERATIONAL CONTROL HEATING AND AIR CONDITIONING OF BUILDINGS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

PETRENKO A. O.

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Statement of the problem. Health and human performance largely determined by the conditions of climate and air quality in residential, administrative and residential and public buildings. At that, in turn, is influenced by the external environment and the climate, and the geometric dimensions of the room, and thermal performance building envelopes, and the location of the premises (Orientation, and many other factors. The result is the formation of complex systems, which control decision-making in conditions of multifactor [1]. In hygienic purposes it is necessary to strive to create the best indoor microclimate conditions, regardless of changes in the factors that affect the climate in residential, administrative and residential and public buildings. Develop systems to ensure the necessary microclimate parameters – it is a complex and important task, which will depend entirely comfortable and cozy environment for the person. The problem of the present time, there is a steady increase in the energy consumption of these systems, due to the rise in price of non-renewable energy sources, and our job is, to simulate the work of software systems necessary microclimate for the changes in the factors that affect it and to minimize the use of non-renewable energy sources. Analysis of recent research and publications. Domestic and foreign hygienists [2, 3, 4] to establish a connection between the climate in the room and in the workplace and the state of human health. Formation of the indoor climate of residential, administrative and residential and public buildings is influenced by many factors that have already noted earlier [5, 6]. Study of the processes of influence of various factors on human health is of great complexity. If we consider each process separately, and in this case they are not currently amenable to theoretical description clearer. To simulate the effect of these factors studies were conducted, which showed that, with sufficient

A THEORETICAL HEAT ANALYSIS OF BUILDINGS IN SUMMER CONDITION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Tuğrul OĞULATA

1997-01-01

Full Text Available It is possible to achive the bio-climatical comfort is buildings by setting the indoor temperature at certain level at which the people feels himself comfortable. The indoor temperature changing with the summer-winter climate conditions and with the building materials should always be around desirable level. Therefore, the variation of indoor temperature depending on the natural and artifical cooling and heating of building materials, within the range of design, is becoming so important. For this reason, in this investigation, the variation of indoor temperature has been analysed considering the variation of heat gain by convection, radiation and infiltration, the heat capacity of materials used in building including the outdoor and the temperature of outer ambient. In addition to this, the variation of indoor temperature with time has been computed under the condition that whether the cooling source exist or not. For this purpose, the heat gains, the indoor and outer temperature, the capacity of cooling system and solar radiation have been expressed analyticaly by transforming them into Fourier series.

Smart buildings: Energy efficient conditioning of building occupants

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zeiler, W.; Houten, van M.A.; Boxem, G.; Vehler, R.; Verhoeven, M.; Fremouw, M.

2009-01-01

To further optimize energy performance of buildings, intelligent building control offers new possibilities. Intelligent Software Agents (ISA) can be implemented at different levels of building automation. Individual agents for individual climate control for each user of the building in combination

Numerical investigations of buoyancy-driven natural ventilation in a simple atrium building and its effect on the thermal comfort conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hussain, Shafqat; Oosthuizen, Patrick H.

2012-01-01

In the present study use of solar-assisted buoyancy-driven natural ventilation in a simple atrium building is explored numerically with particular emphasis on the thermal comfort conditions in the building. Initially various geometric configurations of the atrium space were considered in order to investigate airflows and temperature distributions in the building using a validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) modelling approach with the SST-k–ω turbulence model and the Discrete Transfer Radiation Model (DTRM) was used for the investigations. The steady-state governing equations were solved using a commercial CFD solver FLUENT © . From the numerical results obtained, it was noted that an atrium space integrated with a solar chimney would be a relatively better option to be used in an atrium building. In the geometry selected, the performance of the building in response to various changes in design parameters was investigated. The produced airflows and temperature distributions were then used to evaluate indoor thermal comfort conditions in terms of the thermal comfort indices, i.e. the well-known predicted mean vote (PMV) index, its modifications especially for natural ventilation, predicted percent dissatisfied (PPD) index and Percent dissatisfied (PD) factor due to draft. It was found that the thermal conditions in the occupied areas of the building developed as a result of the use of solar-assisted buoyancy-driven ventilation for the particular values of the design parameters selected are mostly in the comfortable zone. Finally, it is demonstrated that the proposed methodology leads to reliable thermal comfort predictions, while the effect of various design variables on the performance of the building is easily recognized. - Highlights: ► Numerical investigations were carried for the use of buoyancy-driven displacement ventilation in a simple atrium building. ► Effect of various atrium

Energy Saving Potential of PCMs in Buildings under Future Climate Conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdo Abdullah Ahmed Gassar

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Energy consumption reduction under changing climate conditions is a major challenge in buildings design, where excessive energy consumption creates an economic and environmental burden. Improving thermal performance of the buildings through support applying phase change material (PCM is a promising strategy for reducing building energy consumption under future climate change. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the energy saving potentials in buildings under future climate conditions in the humid and snowy regions in the hot continental and humid subtropical climates of the east Asia (Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong when various PCMs with different phase change temperatures are applied to a lightweight building envelope. Methodology in this work is implemented in two phases: firstly, investigation of energy saving potentials in buildings through inclusion of three types of PCMs with different phase temperatures into the building envelop separately and use weather file in the present (2017; and, secondly, evaluation of the effect of future climate change on the performance of PCMs by analyzing energy saving potentials of PCMs with 2020, 2050 and 2080 weather data. The results show that the inclusion of PCM into the building envelope is a promising strategy to increase the energy performance in buildings during both heating and cooling seasons in Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong under future climate conditions. The energy savings achieved by using PCMs in those regions are electricity savings of 4.48–8.21%, 3.81–9.69%, and 1.94–5.15%, and gas savings of 1.65–16.59%, 7.60–61.76%, and 62.07–93.33% in Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong, respectively, for the years 2017, 2020, 2050 and 2080. In addition, BioPCM and RUBITHERMPCM are the most efficient for improving thermal performance and saving energy in buildings in the tested regions and years.

Building occupancy diversity and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system energy efficiency

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Zheng; Ghahramani, Ali; Becerik-Gerber, Burcin

2016-01-01

Approximately forty percent of total building energy consumption is attributed to HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems that aim to maintain healthy and comfortable indoor environments. An HVAC system is a network with several subsystems, and there exist heat transfer and balance among the zones of a building, as well as heat gains and losses through a building's envelope. Diverse occupancy (diversity in terms of when and how occupants occupy a building) in spaces could result in increase of loads that are not actual demands for an HVAC system, leading into inefficiencies. This paper introduces a framework to quantitatively evaluate the energy implications of occupancy diversity at the building level, where building information modeling is integrated to provide building geometries, HVAC system layouts, and spatial information as inputs for computing potential energy implications if occupancy diversity were to be eliminated. An agglomerate hierarchical clustering-based iterative evaluation algorithm is designed for iteratively eliminating occupancy diversity. Whole building energy simulations for a real-world building, as well as virtual reference buildings demonstrate that the proposed framework could effectively quantify the HVAC system energy efficiency affected by occupancy diversity and the framework is generalizable to different building geometries, layouts, and occupancy diversities. - Highlights: • Analyze relationships between occupancy diversity and HVAC energy efficiency. • Integrate BIM for quantifying energy implications of occupancy diversity. • Demonstrate the effectiveness and generalizability of iterative evaluation algorithm. • Improve agglomerative hierarchical clustering process using heap data structure.

Optimizing Energy Consumption in Building Designs Using Building Information Model (BIM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Egwunatum Samuel

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Given the ability of a Building Information Model (BIM to serve as a multi-disciplinary data repository, this paper seeks to explore and exploit the sustainability value of Building Information Modelling/models in delivering buildings that require less energy for their operation, emit less CO2 and at the same time provide a comfortable living environment for their occupants. This objective was achieved by a critical and extensive review of the literature covering: (1 building energy consumption, (2 building energy performance and analysis, and (3 building information modeling and energy assessment. The literature cited in this paper showed that linking an energy analysis tool with a BIM model helped project design teams to predict and create optimized energy consumption. To validate this finding, an in-depth analysis was carried out on a completed BIM integrated construction project using the Arboleda Project in the Dominican Republic. The findings showed that the BIM-based energy analysis helped the design team achieve the world’s first 103% positive energy building. From the research findings, the paper concludes that linking an energy analysis tool with a BIM model helps to expedite the energy analysis process, provide more detailed and accurate results as well as deliver energy-efficient buildings. The study further recommends that the adoption of a level 2 BIM and the integration of BIM in energy optimization analyse should be made compulsory for all projects irrespective of the method of procurement (government-funded or otherwise or its size.

Simulation Speed Analysis and Improvements of Modelica Models for Building Energy Simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jorissen, Filip; Wetter, Michael; Helsen, Lieve

2015-09-21

This paper presents an approach for speeding up Modelica models. Insight is provided into how Modelica models are solved and what determines the tool’s computational speed. Aspects such as algebraic loops, code efficiency and integrator choice are discussed. This is illustrated using simple building simulation examples and Dymola. The generality of the work is in some cases verified using OpenModelica. Using this approach, a medium sized office building including building envelope, heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and control strategy can be simulated at a speed five hundred times faster than real time.

Model building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frampton, Paul H.

1998-01-01

In this talk I begin with some general discussion of model building in particle theory, emphasizing the need for motivation and testability. Three illustrative examples are then described. The first is the Left-Right model which provides an explanation for the chirality of quarks and leptons. The second is the 331-model which offers a first step to understanding the three generations of quarks and leptons. Third and last is the SU(15) model which can accommodate the light leptoquarks possibly seen at HERA

Integrated building and system simulation using run-time coupled distributed models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Trcka, M.; Hensen, J.L.M.; Wijsman, A.J.T.M.

2006-01-01

In modeling and simulation of real building and heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system configurations, it is frequently found that certain parts can be represented in one simulation software, while models for other parts of the configuration are only available in other software.

Management Model for efficient quality control in new buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. E. Rodríguez-Jiménez

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The management of the quality control of each building process is usually set up in Spain from different levels of demand. This work tries to obtain a model of reference, to compare the quality control of the building process of a specific product (building, and to be able to evaluate its warranty level. In the quest of this purpose, we take credit of specialized sources and 153 real cases of Quality Control were carefully revised using a multi-judgment method. Applying different techniques to get a specific valuation (impartial of the input parameters through Delphi’s method (17 experts query, whose matrix treatment with the Fuzzy-QFD tool condenses numerical references through a weighted distribution of the selected functions and their corresponding conditioning factors. The model thus obtained (M153 is useful in order to have a quality control reference to meet the expectations of the quality.

Model building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frampton, P.H.

1998-01-01

In this talk I begin with some general discussion of model building in particle theory, emphasizing the need for motivation and testability. Three illustrative examples are then described. The first is the Left-Right model which provides an explanation for the chirality of quarks and leptons. The second is the 331-model which offers a first step to understanding the three generations of quarks and leptons. Third and last is the SU(15) model which can accommodate the light leptoquarks possibly seen at HERA. copyright 1998 American Institute of Physics

Management of air-conditioning systems in residential buildings by using fuzzy logic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sohair F. Rezeka

2015-06-01

Full Text Available There has been a rising concern in reducing the energy consumption in buildings. Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system is the biggest consumer of energy in buildings. In this study, management of the air-conditioning system of a building for efficient energy operation and comfortable environment is investigated. The strategy used in this work depends on classifying the rooms to three different groups: very important rooms, important rooms and normal rooms. The total mass flow rate is divided between all rooms by certain percentage using a fuzzy-logic system to get the optimum performance for each room. The suggested Building Management System (BMS was found capable of keeping errors in both temperature and humidity within the acceptable limits at different operating conditions. The BMS can save the chilled/hot water flow rate and the cooling/heating capacity of rooms.

Integrating Building Information Modeling and Green Building Certification: The BIM-LEED Application Model Development

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Wei

2010-01-01

Building information modeling (BIM) and green building are currently two major trends in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. This research recognizes the market demand for better solutions to achieve green building certification such as LEED in the United States. It proposes a new strategy based on the integration of BIM…

A Study of the Relationship Between School Leadership and the Condition of School Buildings

OpenAIRE

Brannon, William Lee

2000-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school leadership and the quality, condition, maintenance, improvements, and renovations of public school buildings. The first question examined the relationship between building conditions and perceptions of school board members, superintendent and central office staff, board of supervisors, and principals. The second question examined the relationship between building conditions and the financial support of leadership positio...

A Probabilistic Model for Exteriors of Residential Buildings

KAUST Repository

Fan, Lubin

2016-07-29

We propose a new framework to model the exterior of residential buildings. The main goal of our work is to design a model that can be learned from data that is observable from the outside of a building and that can be trained with widely available data such as aerial images and street-view images. First, we propose a parametric model to describe the exterior of a building (with a varying number of parameters) and propose a set of attributes as a building representation with fixed dimensionality. Second, we propose a hierarchical graphical model with hidden variables to encode the relationships between building attributes and learn both the structure and parameters of the model from the database. Third, we propose optimization algorithms to generate three-dimensional models based on building attributes sampled from the graphical model. Finally, we demonstrate our framework by synthesizing new building models and completing partially observed building models from photographs.

Iterative model building, structure refinement and density modification with the PHENIX AutoBuild wizard

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terwilliger, Thomas C.; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.; Afonine, Pavel V.; Moriarty, Nigel W.; Zwart, Peter H.; Hung, Li-Wei; Read, Randy J.; Adams, Paul D.

2008-01-01

The highly automated PHENIX AutoBuild wizard is described. The procedure can be applied equally well to phases derived from isomorphous/anomalous and molecular-replacement methods. The PHENIX AutoBuild wizard is a highly automated tool for iterative model building, structure refinement and density modification using RESOLVE model building, RESOLVE statistical density modification and phenix.refine structure refinement. Recent advances in the AutoBuild wizard and phenix.refine include automated detection and application of NCS from models as they are built, extensive model-completion algorithms and automated solvent-molecule picking. Model-completion algorithms in the AutoBuild wizard include loop building, crossovers between chains in different models of a structure and side-chain optimization. The AutoBuild wizard has been applied to a set of 48 structures at resolutions ranging from 1.1 to 3.2 Å, resulting in a mean R factor of 0.24 and a mean free R factor of 0.29. The R factor of the final model is dependent on the quality of the starting electron density and is relatively independent of resolution

Iterative model-building, structure refinement, and density modification with the PHENIX AutoBuild Wizard

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mailstop M888, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Building 64R0121, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0XY, England; Terwilliger, Thomas; Terwilliger, T.C.; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf Wilhelm; Afonine, P.V.; Moriarty, N.W.; Zwart, P.H.; Hung, L.-W.; Read, R.J.; Adams, P.D.

2007-04-29

The PHENIX AutoBuild Wizard is a highly automated tool for iterative model-building, structure refinement and density modification using RESOLVE or TEXTAL model-building, RESOLVE statistical density modification, and phenix.refine structure refinement. Recent advances in the AutoBuild Wizard and phenix.refine include automated detection and application of NCS from models as they are built, extensive model completion algorithms, and automated solvent molecule picking. Model completion algorithms in the AutoBuild Wizard include loop-building, crossovers between chains in different models of a structure, and side-chain optimization. The AutoBuild Wizard has been applied to a set of 48 structures at resolutions ranging from 1.1 {angstrom} to 3.2 {angstrom}, resulting in a mean R-factor of 0.24 and a mean free R factor of 0.29. The R-factor of the final model is dependent on the quality of the starting electron density, and relatively independent of resolution.

Analysis Thermal Comfort Condition in Complex Residential Building, Case Study: Chiangmai, Thailand

Science.gov (United States)

Juangjandee, Warangkana

2017-10-01

Due to the increasing need for complex residential buildings, it appears that people migrate into the high-density urban areas because the infrastructural facilities can be easily found in the modern metropolitan areas. Such rapid growth of urbanization creates congested residential buildings obstructing solar radiation and wind flow, whereas most urban residents spend 80-90% of their time indoor. Furthermore, the buildings were mostly built with average materials and construction detail. This causes high humidity condition for tenants that could promote mould growth. This study aims to analyse thermal comfort condition in complex residential building, Thailand for finding the passive solution to improve indoor air quality and respond to local conditions. The research methodology will be in two folds: 1) surveying on case study 2) analysis for finding the passive solution of reducing humidity indoor air The result of the survey indicated that the building need to find passive solution for solving humidity problem, that can be divided into two ways which raising ventilation and indoor temperature including increasing wind-flow ventilation and adjusting thermal temperature, for example; improving building design and stack driven ventilation. For raising indoor temperature or increasing mean radiant temperature, daylight can be passive solution for complex residential design for reducing humidity and enhance illumination indoor space simultaneous.

Enhancements to AERMOD's building downwash algorithms based on wind-tunnel and Embedded-LES modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Monbureau, E. M.; Heist, D. K.; Perry, S. G.; Brouwer, L. H.; Foroutan, H.; Tang, W.

2018-04-01

Knowing the fate of effluent from an industrial stack is important for assessing its impact on human health. AERMOD is one of several Gaussian plume models containing algorithms to evaluate the effect of buildings on the movement of the effluent from a stack. The goal of this study is to improve AERMOD's ability to accurately model important and complex building downwash scenarios by incorporating knowledge gained from a recently completed series of wind tunnel studies and complementary large eddy simulations of flow and dispersion around simple structures for a variety of building dimensions, stack locations, stack heights, and wind angles. This study presents three modifications to the building downwash algorithm in AERMOD that improve the physical basis and internal consistency of the model, and one modification to AERMOD's building pre-processor to better represent elongated buildings in oblique winds. These modifications are demonstrated to improve the ability of AERMOD to model observed ground-level concentrations in the vicinity of a building for the variety of conditions examined in the wind tunnel and numerical studies.

Predicted and actual indoor environmental quality: Verification of occupants' behaviour models in residential buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Rune Korsholm; Fabi, Valentina; Corgnati, Stefano P.

2016-01-01

with the building controls (windows, thermostats, solar shading etc.). During the last decade, studies about stochastic models of occupants' behaviour in relation to control of the indoor environment have been published. Often the overall aim of these models is to enable more reliable predictions of building...... performance using building energy performance simulations (BEPS). However, the validity of these models has only been sparsely tested. In this paper, stochastic models of occupants' behaviour from literature were tested against measurements in five apartments. In a monitoring campaign, measurements of indoor....... However, comparisons of the average stochastic predictions with the measured temperatures, relative humidity and CO2 concentrations revealed that the models did not predict the actual indoor environmental conditions well....

Virtual building environments (VBE) - Applying information modeling to buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bazjanac, Vladimir

2004-06-21

A Virtual Building Environment (VBE) is a ''place'' where building industry project staffs can get help in creating Building Information Models (BIM) and in the use of virtual buildings. It consists of a group of industry software that is operated by industry experts who are also experts in the use of that software. The purpose of a VBE is to facilitate expert use of appropriate software applications in conjunction with each other to efficiently support multidisciplinary work. This paper defines BIM and virtual buildings, and describes VBE objectives, set-up and characteristics of operation. It informs about the VBE Initiative and the benefits from a couple of early VBE projects.

Pseudo-Bond Graph model for the analysis of the thermal behavior of buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Merabtine Abdelatif

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In this work, a simplified graphical modeling tool, which in some extent can be considered in halfway between detailed physical and Data driven dynamic models, has been developed. This model is based on Bond Graphs approach. This approach has the potential to display explicitly the nature of power in a building system, such as a phenomenon of storage, processing and dissipating energy such as Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC systems. This paper represents the developed models of the two transient heat conduction problems corresponding to the most practical cases in building envelope, such as the heat transfer through vertical walls, roofs and slabs. The validation procedure consists of comparing the results obtained with this model with analytical solution. It has shown very good agreement between measured data and Bond Graphs model simulation. The Bond Graphs technique is then used to model the building dynamic thermal behavior over a single zone building structure and compared with a set of experimental data. An evaluation of indoor temperature was carried out in order to check our Bond Graphs model.

BUILDING INFORMATION MODELS FOR MONITORING AND SIMULATION DATA IN HERITAGE BUILDINGS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. P. Pocobelli

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This paper analyses the use of BIM in heritage buildings, assessing the state-of-the-art and finding paths for further development. Specifically, this work is part of a broader project, which final aim is to support stakeholders through BIM. Given that humidity is one of the major causes of weathering, being able to detect, depict and forecast it, is a key task. A BIM model of a heritage building – enhanced with the integration of a weathering forecasting model – will be able to give detailed information on possible degradation patterns, and when they will happen. This information can be effectively used to plan both ordinary and extraordinary maintenance. The Jewel Tower in London, our case study, is digitised using combined laser scanning and photogrammetry, and a virtual model is produced. The point cloud derived from combined laser scanning & photogrammetry is traced out in with Autodesk Revit, where the main volumetry (gross walls and floors is created with parametric objects. Surface characterisation of the façade is given through renderings. Specifically, new rendering materials have been created for this purpose, based on rectified photos of the Tower. The model is then integrated with moisture data, organised in spreadsheets and linked to it via parametric objects representing the points where measurements had been previously taken. The spatial distribution of moisture is then depicted using Dynamo. This simple exercise demonstrates the potential Dynamo has for condition reporting, and future work will concentrate on the creation of a complex forecasting model to be linked through it.

Building Energy Modeling and Control Methods for Optimization and Renewables Integration

Science.gov (United States)

Burger, Eric M.

This dissertation presents techniques for the numerical modeling and control of building systems, with an emphasis on thermostatically controlled loads. The primary objective of this work is to address technical challenges related to the management of energy use in commercial and residential buildings. This work is motivated by the need to enhance the performance of building systems and by the potential for aggregated loads to perform load following and regulation ancillary services, thereby enabling the further adoption of intermittent renewable energy generation technologies. To increase the generalizability of the techniques, an emphasis is placed on recursive and adaptive methods which minimize the need for customization to specific buildings and applications. The techniques presented in this dissertation can be divided into two general categories: modeling and control. Modeling techniques encompass the processing of data streams from sensors and the training of numerical models. These models enable us to predict the energy use of a building and of sub-systems, such as a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit. Specifically, we first present an ensemble learning method for the short-term forecasting of total electricity demand in buildings. As the deployment of intermittent renewable energy resources continues to rise, the generation of accurate building-level electricity demand forecasts will be valuable to both grid operators and building energy management systems. Second, we present a recursive parameter estimation technique for identifying a thermostatically controlled load (TCL) model that is non-linear in the parameters. For TCLs to perform demand response services in real-time markets, online methods for parameter estimation are needed. Third, we develop a piecewise linear thermal model of a residential building and train the model using data collected from a custom-built thermostat. This model is capable of approximating unmodeled

Improving PAQ and comfort conditions in Spanish office buildings with passive climate control

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Orosa, Jose A.; Baalina, A. [Departamento de Energia y P.M. Escuela Tecnica Superior de N. y M, Universidade da Coruna, Paseo de Ronda 51, P.C.:15011 A Coruna (Spain)

2009-03-15

Some researchers have demonstrated that passive moisture transfer between indoor air and hygroscopic structures has the potential to moderate variations of indoor air relative humidity and, thus, to improve comfort and PAQ [Simonson CJ, Salonvaara M, Ojalen T. The effect of structures on indoor humidity-possibility to improve comfort and perceived air quality. Indoor Air 2002; 12: 243-51; Simonson CJ, Salonvaara M, Ojalen T. Improving indoor climate and comfort with wooden structures. Espoo 2001. Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT Publications 431.200p+app 91p]. The main objective of this study is to show the internal wall coating effect on indoor air conditions and, as a consequence of this, in comfort conditions and PAQ. In a previous paper [Orosa JA, Baalina A. Passive climate control in Spanish office buildings for long periods of time. Building and Environment 2008], we analysed the influence of permeable and impermeable materials on indoor air conditions, during the unoccupied period, in 25 office buildings in different seasons. Results obtained lead us to conclude that real coverings such as permeable, semi-permeable and impermeable types, present different behavioural patterns in indoor air conditions. Furthermore, we concluded that an absorbent structure will moderate relative humidity indoors. In this paper, we study this indoor relative humidity effect on local thermal discomfort, due to decreased respiratory cooling, and indoor ambience acceptability for the early hours of morning applying PD and Acc models [Toftum J, Jorgensen AS, Fanger PO. Upper limits for indoor air humidity to avoid uncomfortably humid skin. Energy and buildings 1998; 28: 1-13; Toftum J, Jorgensen AS, Fanger PO. Upper limits of air humidity for preventing warm respiratory discomfort. Energy and Buildings 1998; 28: 15-23] such as that proposed by Simonson et al. [The effect of structures on indoor humidity-possibility to improve comfort and perceived air quality. Indoor Air

Automatic generation and simulation of urban building energy models based on city datasets for city-scale building retrofit analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Yixing; Hong, Tianzhen; Piette, Mary Ann

2017-01-01

Highlights: •Developed methods and used data models to integrate city’s public building records. •Shading from neighborhood buildings strongly influences urban building performance. •A case study demonstrated the workflow, simulation and analysis of building retrofits. •CityBES retrofit analysis feature provides actionable information for decision making. •Discussed significance and challenges of urban building energy modeling. -- Abstract: Buildings in cities consume 30–70% of total primary energy, and improving building energy efficiency is one of the key strategies towards sustainable urbanization. Urban building energy models (UBEM) can support city managers to evaluate and prioritize energy conservation measures (ECMs) for investment and the design of incentive and rebate programs. This paper presents the retrofit analysis feature of City Building Energy Saver (CityBES) to automatically generate and simulate UBEM using EnergyPlus based on cities’ building datasets and user-selected ECMs. CityBES is a new open web-based tool to support city-scale building energy efficiency strategic plans and programs. The technical details of using CityBES for UBEM generation and simulation are introduced, including the workflow, key assumptions, and major databases. Also presented is a case study that analyzes the potential retrofit energy use and energy cost savings of five individual ECMs and two measure packages for 940 office and retail buildings in six city districts in northeast San Francisco, United States. The results show that: (1) all five measures together can save 23–38% of site energy per building; (2) replacing lighting with light-emitting diode lamps and adding air economizers to existing heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems are most cost-effective with an average payback of 2.0 and 4.3 years, respectively; and (3) it is not economical to upgrade HVAC systems or replace windows in San Francisco due to the city’s mild

Modeling the Temperature Effect of Orientations in Residential Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabahat Arif

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Indoor thermal comfort in a building has been an important issue for the environmental sustainability. It is an accepted fact that their designs and planning consume a lot of energy in the modern architecture of 20th and 21st centuries. An appropriate orientation of a building can provide thermally comfortable indoor temperatures which otherwise can consume extra energy to condition these spaces through all the seasons. This experimental study investigates the potential effect of this solar passive design strategy on indoor temperatures and a simple model is presented for predicting indoor temperatures based upon the ambient temperatures.

Energy performance and optimal control of air-conditioned buildings with envelopes enhanced by phase change materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu Na; Wang Shengwei; Ma Zhenjun; Sun Yongjun

2011-01-01

Highlights: → Impact of PCM on the energy consumption and peak load demand as well as electricity cost of air-conditioned buildings. → Impact of load shifting control on energy consumption, peak load and electricity cost of air-conditioned PCM buildings. → Impact of demand limiting control on energy consumption, peak load and electricity cost of air-conditioned PCM buildings. → Energy/cost effects of different control strategies and use of PCM in energy-plus-demand-based pricing policy. → Energy/cost effects of different control strategies and use of PCM in time-based pricing policy. - Abstract: Studies are conducted to investigate the impacts of shape-stabilized phase change material (SSPCM) and different control strategies on the energy consumption and peak load demand as well as electricity cost of building air-conditioning systems at typical summer conditions in two climates (subtropical and dry continental climates). An office building using a typical variable air volume (VAV) air-conditioning system was selected and simulated as the reference building in this study. Its envelopes were enhanced by integrating the SSPCM layers into its walls while the air-conditioning system and other configurations of the building remained unchanged. The building system was tested under two typical weather conditions and two typical electricity pricing policies (i.e. time-based pricing and energy-plus-demand-based pricing). Test results show that the use of SSPCM in the building could reduce the building electricity cost significantly (over 11% in electricity cost reduction and over 20% in peak load reduction), under two pricing policies by using load shifting control and demand limiting control respectively. This paper presents the test results and the evaluation on the energy performance and the optimal control strategies of air-conditioned commercial buildings with envelopes enhanced by SSPCM.

Modeling and forecasting energy consumption for heterogeneous buildings using a physical–statistical approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lü, Xiaoshu; Lu, Tao; Kibert, Charles J.; Viljanen, Martti

2015-01-01

Highlights: • This paper presents a new modeling method to forecast energy demands. • The model is based on physical–statistical approach to improving forecast accuracy. • A new method is proposed to address the heterogeneity challenge. • Comparison with measurements shows accurate forecasts of the model. • The first physical–statistical/heterogeneous building energy modeling approach is proposed and validated. - Abstract: Energy consumption forecasting is a critical and necessary input to planning and controlling energy usage in the building sector which accounts for 40% of the world’s energy use and the world’s greatest fraction of greenhouse gas emissions. However, due to the diversity and complexity of buildings as well as the random nature of weather conditions, energy consumption and loads are stochastic and difficult to predict. This paper presents a new methodology for energy demand forecasting that addresses the heterogeneity challenges in energy modeling of buildings. The new method is based on a physical–statistical approach designed to account for building heterogeneity to improve forecast accuracy. The physical model provides a theoretical input to characterize the underlying physical mechanism of energy flows. Then stochastic parameters are introduced into the physical model and the statistical time series model is formulated to reflect model uncertainties and individual heterogeneity in buildings. A new method of model generalization based on a convex hull technique is further derived to parameterize the individual-level model parameters for consistent model coefficients while maintaining satisfactory modeling accuracy for heterogeneous buildings. The proposed method and its validation are presented in detail for four different sports buildings with field measurements. The results show that the proposed methodology and model can provide a considerable improvement in forecasting accuracy

Assessment of Retrofitting Measures for a Large Historic Research Facility Using a Building Energy Simulation Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Young Tae Chae

2016-06-01

Full Text Available A calibrated building simulation model was developed to assess the energy performance of a large historic research building. The complexity of space functions and operational conditions with limited availability of energy meters makes it hard to understand the end-used energy consumption in detail and to identify appropriate retrofitting options for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG emissions. An energy simulation model was developed to study the energy usage patterns not only at a building level, but also of the internal thermal zones, and system operations. The model was validated using site measurements of energy usage and a detailed audit of the internal load conditions, system operation, and space programs to minimize the discrepancy between the documented status and actual operational conditions. Based on the results of the calibrated model and end-used energy consumption, the study proposed potential energy conservation measures (ECMs for the building envelope, HVAC system operational methods, and system replacement. It also evaluated each ECM from the perspective of both energy and utility cost saving potentials to help retrofitting plan decision making. The study shows that the energy consumption of the building was highly dominated by the thermal requirements of laboratory spaces. Among other ECMs the demand management option of overriding the setpoint temperature is the most cost effective measure.

Whole-building Hygrothermal Simulation Model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rode, Carsten; Grau, Karl

2003-01-01

An existing integrated simulation tool for dynamic thermal simulation of building was extended with a transient model for moisture release and uptake in building materials. Validation of the new model was begun with comparison against measurements in an outdoor test cell furnished with single...... materials. Almost quasi-steady, cyclic experiments were used to compare the indoor humidity variation and the numerical results of the integrated simulation tool with the new moisture model. Except for the case with chipboard as furnishing, the predictions of indoor humidity with the detailed model were...

Modeling temperature and moisture fields in conditioned spaces using zonal approach, including sorption phenomena in buildings materials; Modelisation thermo-hydro-aeraulique des locaux climatises selon l'approche zonale (prise en compte des phenomenes de sorption d'humidite)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cordeiro Mendoca, K.

2004-05-15

Building simulation models represent in our days an important tool for building conception and performance analysis. Although moisture interacts in many ways with the whole building affecting therefore its behavior, frequently these models neglects the interactions between them. In addition, in most of them, indoor air conditions are considered uniform, which is a non-realistic assumption in conditioned spaces. In this work, a model to predict temperature and moisture fields in conditioned spaces, using zonal approach, is proposed. This method is based in dividing spatially a room in a relative small number of zones, typically on the order of tens to hundreds, where the state variables of air are considered uniform, with the exception of pressure that varies hydrostatically. While not as fine-grained as CFD simulation, zonal models do give useful information about temperature and moisture distributions that is important in comfort analysis. The proposed model was structured in three groups of sub-models representing the three building domains: indoor air, envelope and HVAC system. The indoor air sub-model is related to the indoor air space, where airflow speed can be considered weak. The envelope sub-model is related to the radiation exchanges between envelope and its neighborhood, and to the simultaneous heat and mass transfers across the envelope material. This latest can be represented by four sub-models of different complexity levels, with two of them taking into account moisture adsorption and desorption by building materials. Concerning to the HVAC system model, it refers to the whole system that means equipment, control and specific airflow from equipment. All sub-models were coupled into a modular simulation environment, SPARK, well-adapted to compare different models. The applicability of the proposed model is shown by two examples. The first one shows the importance of considering moisture sorption phenomena in the prediction of indoor air conditions

RCrane: semi-automated RNA model building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keating, Kevin S.; Pyle, Anna Marie

2012-01-01

RCrane is a new tool for the partially automated building of RNA crystallographic models into electron-density maps of low or intermediate resolution. This tool helps crystallographers to place phosphates and bases into electron density and then automatically predicts and builds the detailed all-atom structure of the traced nucleotides. RNA crystals typically diffract to much lower resolutions than protein crystals. This low-resolution diffraction results in unclear density maps, which cause considerable difficulties during the model-building process. These difficulties are exacerbated by the lack of computational tools for RNA modeling. Here, RCrane, a tool for the partially automated building of RNA into electron-density maps of low or intermediate resolution, is presented. This tool works within Coot, a common program for macromolecular model building. RCrane helps crystallographers to place phosphates and bases into electron density and then automatically predicts and builds the detailed all-atom structure of the traced nucleotides. RCrane then allows the crystallographer to review the newly built structure and select alternative backbone conformations where desired. This tool can also be used to automatically correct the backbone structure of previously built nucleotides. These automated corrections can fix incorrect sugar puckers, steric clashes and other structural problems

Flexible building stock modelling with array-programming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brøgger, Morten; Wittchen, Kim Bjarne

2017-01-01

Many building stock models employ archetype-buildings in order to capture the essential characteristics of a diverse building stock. However, these models often require multiple archetypes, which make them inflexible. This paper proposes an array-programming based model, which calculates the heat...... tend to overestimate potential energy-savings, if we do not consider these discrepancies. The proposed model makes it possible to compute and visualize potential energy-savings in a flexible and transparent way....

Cooling energy efficiency and classroom air environment of a school building operated by the heat recovery air conditioning unit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Yang; Zhao, Fu-Yun; Kuckelkorn, Jens; Liu, Di; Liu, Li-Qun; Pan, Xiao-Chuan

2014-01-01

The recently-built school buildings have adopted novel heat recovery ventilator and air conditioning system. Heat recovery efficiency of the heat recovery facility and energy conservation ratio of the air conditioning unit were analytically modeled, taking the ventilation networks into account. Following that, school classroom displacement ventilation and its thermal stratification and indoor air quality indicated by the CO 2 concentration have been numerically modeled concerning the effects of delivering ventilation flow rate and supplying air temperature. Numerical results indicate that the promotion of mechanical ventilation rate can simultaneously boost the dilution of indoor air pollutants and the non-uniformity of indoor thermal and pollutant distributions. Subsequent energy performance analysis demonstrates that classroom energy demands for ventilation and cooling could be reduced with the promotion of heat recovery efficiency of the ventilation facility, and the energy conservation ratio of the air conditioning unit decreases with the increasing temperatures of supplying air. Fitting correlations of heat recovery ventilation and cooling energy conservation have been presented. - Highlights: • Low energy school buildings and classroom environment. • Heat recovery facility operating with an air conditioning unit. • Displacement ventilation influenced by the heat recovery efficiency. • Energy conservation of cooling and ventilation through heat recovery. • Enhancement of classroom environment with reduction of school building energy

Seismic soil–structure interaction analysis of a nuclear power plant building founded on soil and in degraded concrete stiffness condition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farahani, Reza V.; Dessalegn, Tewodros M.; Vaidya, Nishikant R.; Bazan-Zurita, Enrique

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Three dimensional finite element modeling of a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) building founded on soil is described. • A simplified technique to consider degraded stiffness of concrete members in seismic analysis of NPP buildings is presented. • The effect of subsurface profiles on the seismic response of a NPP building is investigated. - Abstract: This study describes three-dimensional (3-D) finite element (FE) modeling and seismic Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) analysis of a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) Diesel Generator Building (DGB) that is founded on soil in degraded concrete stiffness condition. A new technique is presented that uses two horizontal and vertical FE models to consider the concrete stiffness reduction of NPP buildings subjected to orthogonal ground motion excitations, in which appropriate stiffness reduction factors, based on the input motion orientation, are applied. Seismic SSI analysis is performed for each model separately, and dynamic responses are calculated in the three global directions. The results of the analysis for the two FE models are then combined, using the square-root-of-the-sum-of-squares (SRSS) combination rule. A sensitivity analysis is also performed to investigate the subsurface profile effect on the In-Structure (acceleration) Response Spectra (ISRS) of the building when subjected to site-specific Foundation Input Response Spectra (FIRS) that exhibit high spectral amplifications in the high-frequency range. The sensitivity analysis considers three strain-compatible subsurface profiles that represent Lower-Bound (LB), Best-Estimate (BE), and Upper-Bound (UB) conditions at the DGB site. The sensitivity analysis results indicate that the seismic response of the DGB founded on soil highly depends on the subsurface profile; i.e., each of the LB, BE, and UB subsurface profiles can maximize building seismic response when subjected to FIRS that exhibit high spectral amplifications in the high-frequency range

Modelling the distribution of 222Rn concentration in a multi level, general purpose building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toro, Laszlo; Noditi, Mihaela; Gheorghe, Raluca; Gheorghe, Dan

2008-01-01

The importance of 222 Rn (radon) in the indoor air related to the exposure form natural sources is relatively well documented. About 30% of the individual effective dose from natural sources is coming from the inhalation of 222 Rn and his short lived daughters. In unfavorable conditions given by the soil porosity and the existence of upward air movement in the soil there is a possibility to have unusually high radon concentration in houses even on soil with 'normal' 226 Ra content. Some construction solutions (high indoor spaces) should generate a significant indoor-outdoor negative pressure differences and consequently upward air currents (stack effect) which will facilitate the entrance of radon in the building. This effect will multiply the possibility of migration of radon in the building. The difficulty of the prediction of radon migration in the soil-building system increase the importance of the mathematical modelling of the behavior of radon-soil emission, infiltration and migration in the building - in areas with high radon potential. For one level simple buildings there are several models in the literature but the information regarding the multilevel building models are relatively scarce. Two different approaches used to describe the behavior of the radon gas in large (mainly high) buildings have been analyzed: Direct approach: computational fluid dynamics, solving the transport equations for the whole building (the domain of the solution of the transport and flow equations is delimited by the building envelope - the external walls); the openings (internal and external) and ventilation are defined by the boundary conditions. This approach is quite complex, the equations are solved (numerically) for highly inhomogeneous medium but is based on the fundamental processes governing the transport. In the same time it gives the possibility to obtain a concentration pattern in every part of the building. Multi-zone approach treating the building as interconnected

U.S. Department of Energy Commercial Reference Building Models of the National Building Stock

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Deru, M.; Field, K.; Studer, D.; Benne, K.; Griffith, B.; Torcellini, P.; Liu, B.; Halverson, M.; Winiarski, D.; Rosenberg, M.; Yazdanian, M.; Huang, J.; Crawley, D.

2011-02-01

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Program has set the aggressive goal of producing marketable net-zero energy buildings by 2025. This goal will require collaboration between the DOE laboratories and the building industry. We developed standard or reference energy models for the most common commercial buildings to serve as starting points for energy efficiency research. These models represent fairly realistic buildings and typical construction practices. Fifteen commercial building types and one multifamily residential building were determined by consensus between DOE, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and represent approximately two-thirds of the commercial building stock.

A simulation Model of the Reactor Hall Ventilation and air Conditioning Systems of ETRR-2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abd El-Rahman, M.F.

2004-01-01

Although the conceptual design for any system differs from one designer to another. each of them aims to achieve the function of the system required. the ventilation and air conditioning system of reactors hall is one of those systems that really differs but always dose its function for which it is designed. thus, ventilation and air conditioning in some reactor hall constitute only one system whereas in some other ones, they are separate systems. the Egypt Research Reactor-2 (ETRR-2)represents the second type. most studies conducted on ventilation and air conditioning simulation models either in traditional building or for research rectors show that those models were not designed similarly to the model of the hall of ETRR-2 in which ventilation and air conditioning constitute two separate systems.besides, those studies experimented on ventilation and air conditioning simulation models of reactor building predict the temperature and humidity inside these buildings at certain outside condition and it is difficult to predict when the outside conditions are changed . also those studies do not discuss the influences of reactor power changes. therefore, the present work deals with a computational study backed by infield experimental measurements of the performance of the ventilation and air conditioning systems of reactor hall during normal operation at different outside conditions as well as at different levels of reactor power

Commercial Building Energy Baseline Modeling Software: Performance Metrics and Method Testing with Open Source Models and Implications for Proprietary Software Testing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Price, Phillip N.; Granderson, Jessica; Sohn, Michael; Addy, Nathan; Jump, David

2013-09-01

The overarching goal of this work is to advance the capabilities of technology evaluators in evaluating the building-level baseline modeling capabilities of Energy Management and Information System (EMIS) software. Through their customer engagement platforms and products, EMIS software products have the potential to produce whole-building energy savings through multiple strategies: building system operation improvements, equipment efficiency upgrades and replacements, and inducement of behavioral change among the occupants and operations personnel. Some offerings may also automate the quantification of whole-building energy savings, relative to a baseline period, using empirical models that relate energy consumption to key influencing parameters, such as ambient weather conditions and building operation schedule. These automated baseline models can be used to streamline the whole-building measurement and verification (M&V) process, and therefore are of critical importance in the context of multi-measure whole-building focused utility efficiency programs. This report documents the findings of a study that was conducted to begin answering critical questions regarding quantification of savings at the whole-building level, and the use of automated and commercial software tools. To evaluate the modeling capabilities of EMIS software particular to the use case of whole-building savings estimation, four research questions were addressed: 1. What is a general methodology that can be used to evaluate baseline model performance, both in terms of a) overall robustness, and b) relative to other models? 2. How can that general methodology be applied to evaluate proprietary models that are embedded in commercial EMIS tools? How might one handle practical issues associated with data security, intellectual property, appropriate testing ‘blinds’, and large data sets? 3. How can buildings be pre-screened to identify those that are the most model-predictable, and therefore those

The Future of Air Conditioning for Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goetzler, William [Navigant Consulting, Burlington, MA (United States); Guernsey, Matt [Navigant Consulting, Burlington, MA (United States); Young, Jim [Navigant Consulting, Burlington, MA (United States); Fujrman, Jay [Navigant Consulting, Burlington, MA (United States); Abdelaziz, Amar [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2016-07-01

BTO works with researchers and industry to develop and deploy technologies that can substantially reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in residential and commercial buildings. Air conditioning systems in buildings contribute to GHG emissions both directly through refrigerant emissions, as well as indirectly through fossil fuel combustion for power generation. BTO promotes pre-competitive research and development on next-generation HVAC technologies that support the phase down of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) production and consumption, as well as cost-effective energy efficiency improvements. DOE provides, with this report, a fact-based vision for the future of A/C use around the world. DOE intends for this vision to reflect a broad and balanced aggregation of perspectives. DOE brings together this content in an effort to support dialogue within the international community and help keep key facts and objectives at the forefront among the many important discussions.

Impacts of Model Building Energy Codes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Athalye, Rahul A. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Sivaraman, Deepak [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Elliott, Douglas B. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Liu, Bing [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Bartlett, Rosemarie [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2016-10-31

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program (BECP) periodically evaluates national and state-level impacts associated with energy codes in residential and commercial buildings. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), funded by DOE, conducted an assessment of the prospective impacts of national model building energy codes from 2010 through 2040. A previous PNNL study evaluated the impact of the Building Energy Codes Program; this study looked more broadly at overall code impacts. This report describes the methodology used for the assessment and presents the impacts in terms of energy savings, consumer cost savings, and reduced CO₂ emissions at the state level and at aggregated levels. This analysis does not represent all potential savings from energy codes in the U.S. because it excludes several states which have codes which are fundamentally different from the national model energy codes or which do not have state-wide codes. Energy codes follow a three-phase cycle that starts with the development of a new model code, proceeds with the adoption of the new code by states and local jurisdictions, and finishes when buildings comply with the code. The development of new model code editions creates the potential for increased energy savings. After a new model code is adopted, potential savings are realized in the field when new buildings (or additions and alterations) are constructed to comply with the new code. Delayed adoption of a model code and incomplete compliance with the code’s requirements erode potential savings. The contributions of all three phases are crucial to the overall impact of codes, and are considered in this assessment.

Optimization of heat saving in buildings using unsteady heat transfer model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dedinec Aleksandra

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Reducing the energy consumption growth rate is increasingly becoming one of the main challenges for ensuring sustainable development, particularly in the buildings as the largest end-use sector in many countries. Along this line, the aim of this paper is to analyse the possibilities for energy savings in the construction of new buildings and reconstruction of the existing ones developing a tool that, in terms of the available heating technologies and insulation, provides answer to the problem of optimal cost effective energy consumption. The tool is composed of an unsteady heat transfer model which is incorporated into a cost-effective energy saving optimization. The unsteady heat transfer model uses annual hourly meteorological data, chosen as typical for the last ten-year period, as well as thermo physical features of the layers of the building walls. The model is tested for the typical conditions in the city of Skopje, Macedonia. The results show that the most cost effective heating technology for the given conditions is the wood fired stove, followed by the inverter air-conditioner. The centralized district heating and the pellet fired stoves are the next options. The least cost effective option is the panel that uses electricity. In this paper, the optimal insulation thickness is presented for each type of heating technology.

Optimal Decision Model for Sustainable Hospital Building Renovation—A Case Study of a Vacant School Building Converting into a Community Public Hospital

Science.gov (United States)

Juan, Yi-Kai; Cheng, Yu-Ching; Perng, Yeng-Horng; Castro-Lacouture, Daniel

2016-01-01

Much attention has been paid to hospitals environments since modern pandemics have emerged. The building sector is considered to be the largest world energy consumer, so many global organizations are attempting to create a sustainable environment in building construction by reducing energy consumption. Therefore, maintaining high standards of hygiene while reducing energy consumption has become a major task for hospitals. This study develops a decision model based on genetic algorithms and A* graph search algorithms to evaluate existing hospital environmental conditions and to recommend an optimal scheme of sustainable renovation strategies, considering trade-offs among minimal renovation cost, maximum quality improvement, and low environmental impact. Reusing vacant buildings is a global and sustainable trend. In Taiwan, for example, more and more school space will be unoccupied due to a rapidly declining birth rate. Integrating medical care with local community elder-care efforts becomes important because of the aging population. This research introduces a model that converts a simulated vacant school building into a community public hospital renovation project in order to validate the solutions made by hospital managers and suggested by the system. The result reveals that the system performs well and its solutions are more successful than the actions undertaken by decision-makers. This system can improve traditional hospital building condition assessment while making it more effective and efficient. PMID:27347986

Optimal Decision Model for Sustainable Hospital Building Renovation-A Case Study of a Vacant School Building Converting into a Community Public Hospital.

Science.gov (United States)

Juan, Yi-Kai; Cheng, Yu-Ching; Perng, Yeng-Horng; Castro-Lacouture, Daniel

2016-06-24

Much attention has been paid to hospitals environments since modern pandemics have emerged. The building sector is considered to be the largest world energy consumer, so many global organizations are attempting to create a sustainable environment in building construction by reducing energy consumption. Therefore, maintaining high standards of hygiene while reducing energy consumption has become a major task for hospitals. This study develops a decision model based on genetic algorithms and A* graph search algorithms to evaluate existing hospital environmental conditions and to recommend an optimal scheme of sustainable renovation strategies, considering trade-offs among minimal renovation cost, maximum quality improvement, and low environmental impact. Reusing vacant buildings is a global and sustainable trend. In Taiwan, for example, more and more school space will be unoccupied due to a rapidly declining birth rate. Integrating medical care with local community elder-care efforts becomes important because of the aging population. This research introduces a model that converts a simulated vacant school building into a community public hospital renovation project in order to validate the solutions made by hospital managers and suggested by the system. The result reveals that the system performs well and its solutions are more successful than the actions undertaken by decision-makers. This system can improve traditional hospital building condition assessment while making it more effective and efficient.

[Biological contamination in office buildings related to ventilation/air conditioning system].

Science.gov (United States)

Bródka, Karolina; Sowiak, Małgorzata; Kozajda, Anna; Cyprowski, Marcin; Irena, Szadkowska-Stańczyk

2012-01-01

Indoor air is contaminated with microorganisms coming from both the atmospheric air and sources present in premises. The aim of this study was to analyze the concentrations of biological agents in office buildings, dependending on ventilation/air conditioning system and season. The study covered office buildings (different in the system of ventila-tion/air conditioning). Air samples for assessing the levels of inhalable dust, endotoxins and (1-->3)-beta-D-glucans, were taken at the selected stationary points of each building during summer and winter. The air was sampled for 6 h, using portable sets consisting of the GilAir 5 pump and the head filled with a filter of fiber glass. The samples for the presence of airborne bacteria and fungi were collected twice during the day using the impaction method. Average concentrations of inhalable dust, bacteria, fungi, endotoxins and (1-->3)-beta-D-glucans in office premises were 0.09 mg/m3, 6.00 x 10(2) cfu/m3, 4.59 x 10(1) cfu/m3, 0.42 ng/m3 and 3.91 ng/m3, respectively. Higher concentrations of the investigated agents were found in summer. In premises with air conditioning concentrations of airborne fungi, (1-->3)-beta-D-glucans and inhalable dust were significantly lower in winter. In summer the trend was reverse except for (1-->3)-beta-D-glucans. Concentrations of biological agents were affected by the season and the presence of air conditioning. Concentrations of inhalable dust, bacteria, fungi, endotoxins and (1-->3)-beta-D-glucans, observed inside the office buildings, were significantly higher in summer than in winter. The presence of the air conditioning system modified in various ways the levels of biological agents. Its influence was greater on the concentration of fungi and (1-->3)-beta-D-glucans than on that of bacteria and endotoxins.

Energy efficient model based algorithm for control of building HVAC systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Kirubakaran, V; Sahu, Chinmay; Radhakrishnan, T K; Sivakumaran, N

2015-11-01

Energy efficient designs are receiving increasing attention in various fields of engineering. Heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) control system designs involve improved energy usage with an acceptable relaxation in thermal comfort. In this paper, real time data from a building HVAC system provided by BuildingLAB is considered. A resistor-capacitor (RC) framework for representing thermal dynamics of the building is estimated using particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. With objective costs as thermal comfort (deviation of room temperature from required temperature) and energy measure (Ecm) explicit MPC design for this building model is executed based on its state space representation of the supply water temperature (input)/room temperature (output) dynamics. The controllers are subjected to servo tracking and external disturbance (ambient temperature) is provided from the real time data during closed loop control. The control strategies are ported on a PIC32mx series microcontroller platform. The building model is implemented in MATLAB and hardware in loop (HIL) testing of the strategies is executed over a USB port. Results indicate that compared to traditional proportional integral (PI) controllers, the explicit MPC's improve both energy efficiency and thermal comfort significantly. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Building Information Modeling Comprehensive Overview

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergey Kalinichuk

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The article is addressed to provide a comprehensive review on recently accelerated development of the Information Technology within project market such as industrial, engineering, procurement and construction. Author’s aim is to cover the last decades of the growth of the Information and Communication Technology in construction industry in particular Building Information Modeling and testifies that the problem of a choice of the effective project realization method not only has not lost its urgency, but has also transformed into one of the major condition of the intensive technology development. All of it has created a great impulse on shortening the project duration and has led to the development of various schedule compression techniques what becomes a focus of modern construction.

Integration of design applications with building models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eastman, C. M.; Jeng, T. S.; Chowdbury, R.

1997-01-01

This paper reviews various issues in the integration of applications with a building model... (Truncated.)......This paper reviews various issues in the integration of applications with a building model... (Truncated.)...

Armagh Observatory - Historic Building Information Modelling for Virtual Learning in Building Conservation

Science.gov (United States)

Murphy, M.; Chenaux, A.; Keenaghan, G.; GIbson, V..; Butler, J.; Pybusr, C.

2017-08-01

In this paper the recording and design for a Virtual Reality Immersive Model of Armagh Observatory is presented, which will replicate the historic buildings and landscape with distant meridian markers and position of its principal historic instruments within a model of the night sky showing the position of bright stars. The virtual reality model can be used for educational purposes allowing the instruments within the historic building model to be manipulated within 3D space to demonstrate how the position measurements of stars were made in the 18th century. A description is given of current student and researchers activities concerning on-site recording and surveying and the virtual modelling of the buildings and landscape. This is followed by a design for a Virtual Reality Immersive Model of Armagh Observatory use game engine and virtual learning platforms and concepts.

The ORC method. Effective modelling of thermal performance of multilayer building components

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Akander, Jan

2000-02-01

The ORC Method (Optimised RC-networks) provides a means of modelling one- or multidimensional heat transfer in building components, in this context within building simulation environments. The methodology is shown, primarily applied to heat transfer in multilayer building components. For multilayer building components, the analytical thermal performance is known, given layer thickness and material properties. The aim of the ORC Method is to optimise the values of the thermal resistances and heat capacities of an RC-model such as to give model performance a good agreement with the analytical performance, for a wide range of frequencies. The optimisation procedure is made in the frequency domain, where the over-all deviation between model and analytical frequency response, in terms of admittance and dynamic transmittance, is minimised. It is shown that ORC's are effective in terms of accuracy and computational time in comparison to finite difference models when used in building simulations, in this case with IDA/ICE. An ORC configuration of five mass nodes has been found to model building components in Nordic countries well, within the application of thermal comfort and energy requirement simulations. Simple RC-networks, such as the surface heat capacity and the simple R-C-configuration are not appropriate for detailed building simulation. However, these can be used as basis for defining the effective heat capacity of a building component. An approximate method is suggested on how to determine the effective heat capacity without the use of complex numbers. This entity can be calculated on basis of layer thickness and material properties with the help of two time constants. The approximate method can give inaccuracies corresponding to 20%. In-situ measurements have been carried out in an experimental building with the purpose of establishing the effective heat capacity of external building components that are subjected to normal thermal conditions. The auxiliary

Semi-Automatic Modelling of Building FAÇADES with Shape Grammars Using Historic Building Information Modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Dore, C.; Murphy, M.

2013-02-01

This paper outlines a new approach for generating digital heritage models from laser scan or photogrammetric data using Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM). HBIM is a plug-in for Building Information Modelling (BIM) software that uses parametric library objects and procedural modelling techniques to automate the modelling stage. The HBIM process involves a reverse engineering solution whereby parametric interactive objects representing architectural elements are mapped onto laser scan or photogrammetric survey data. A library of parametric architectural objects has been designed from historic manuscripts and architectural pattern books. These parametric objects were built using an embedded programming language within the ArchiCAD BIM software called Geometric Description Language (GDL). Procedural modelling techniques have been implemented with the same language to create a parametric building façade which automatically combines library objects based on architectural rules and proportions. Different configurations of the façade are controlled by user parameter adjustment. The automatically positioned elements of the façade can be subsequently refined using graphical editing while overlaying the model with orthographic imagery. Along with this semi-automatic method for generating façade models, manual plotting of library objects can also be used to generate a BIM model from survey data. After the 3D model has been completed conservation documents such as plans, sections, elevations and 3D views can be automatically generated for conservation projects.

RCrane: semi-automated RNA model building.

Science.gov (United States)

Keating, Kevin S; Pyle, Anna Marie

2012-08-01

RNA crystals typically diffract to much lower resolutions than protein crystals. This low-resolution diffraction results in unclear density maps, which cause considerable difficulties during the model-building process. These difficulties are exacerbated by the lack of computational tools for RNA modeling. Here, RCrane, a tool for the partially automated building of RNA into electron-density maps of low or intermediate resolution, is presented. This tool works within Coot, a common program for macromolecular model building. RCrane helps crystallographers to place phosphates and bases into electron density and then automatically predicts and builds the detailed all-atom structure of the traced nucleotides. RCrane then allows the crystallographer to review the newly built structure and select alternative backbone conformations where desired. This tool can also be used to automatically correct the backbone structure of previously built nucleotides. These automated corrections can fix incorrect sugar puckers, steric clashes and other structural problems.

Artificial intelligence support for scientific model-building

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, Richard M.

1992-01-01

Scientific model-building can be a time-intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large and complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot easily be distributed and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complex, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientific development team to understand. We believe that artificial intelligence techniques can facilitate both the model-building and model-sharing process. In this paper, we overview our effort to build a scientific modeling software tool that aids the scientist in developing and using models. This tool includes an interactive intelligent graphical interface, a high-level domain specific modeling language, a library of physics equations and experimental datasets, and a suite of data display facilities.

Developing Verification Systems for Building Information Models of Heritage Buildings with Heterogeneous Datasets

Science.gov (United States)

Chow, L.; Fai, S.

2017-08-01

The digitization and abstraction of existing buildings into building information models requires the translation of heterogeneous datasets that may include CAD, technical reports, historic texts, archival drawings, terrestrial laser scanning, and photogrammetry into model elements. In this paper, we discuss a project undertaken by the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) that explored the synthesis of heterogeneous datasets for the development of a building information model (BIM) for one of Canada's most significant heritage assets - the Centre Block of the Parliament Hill National Historic Site. The scope of the project included the development of an as-found model of the century-old, six-story building in anticipation of specific model uses for an extensive rehabilitation program. The as-found Centre Block model was developed in Revit using primarily point cloud data from terrestrial laser scanning. The data was captured by CIMS in partnership with Heritage Conservation Services (HCS), Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), using a Leica C10 and P40 (exterior and large interior spaces) and a Faro Focus (small to mid-sized interior spaces). Secondary sources such as archival drawings, photographs, and technical reports were referenced in cases where point cloud data was not available. As a result of working with heterogeneous data sets, a verification system was introduced in order to communicate to model users/viewers the source of information for each building element within the model.

Energy Savings Modeling and Inspection Guidelines for Commercial Building Federal Tax Deductions for Buildings in 2016 and Later

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Deru, Michael [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Field-Macumber, Kristin [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2016-09-01

This document provides guidance for modeling and inspecting energy-efficient property in commercial buildings for certification of the energy and power cost savings related to Section 179D of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) enacted in Section 1331 of the 2005 Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005, noted in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Notices 2006-52 (IRS 2006), 2008-40 (IRS 2008) and 2012-26 (IRS 2012), and updated by the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act of 2015. Specifically, Section 179D provides federal tax deductions for energy-efficient property related to a commercial building's envelope; interior lighting; heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC); and service hot water (SHW) systems. This document applies to buildings placed in service on or after January 1, 2016.

Modeling of hydronic radiant cooling of a thermally homeostatic building using a parametric cooling tower

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma, Peizheng; Wang, Lin-Shu; Guo, Nianhua

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Investigated cooling of thermally homeostatic buildings in 7 U.S. cities by modeling. • Natural energy is harnessed by cooling tower to extract heat for building cooling. • Systematically studied possibility and conditions of using cooling tower in buildings. • Diurnal ambient temperature amplitude is taken into account in cooling tower cooling. • Homeostatic building cooling is possible in locations with large ambient T amplitude. - Abstract: A case is made that while it is important to mitigate dissipative losses associated with heat dissipation and mechanical/electrical resistance for engineering efficiency gain, the “architect” of energy efficiency is the conception of best heat extraction frameworks—which determine the realm of possible efficiency. This precept is applied to building energy efficiency here. Following a proposed process assumption-based design method, which was used for determining the required thermal qualities of building thermal autonomy, this paper continues this line of investigation and applies heat extraction approach investigating the extent of building partial homeostasis and the possibility of full homeostasis by using cooling tower in one summer in seven selected U.S. cities. Cooling tower heat extraction is applied parametrically to hydronically activated radiant-surfaces model-buildings. Instead of sizing equipment as a function of design peak hourly temperature as it is done in heat balance design-approach of selecting HVAC equipment, it is shown that the conditions of using cooling tower depend on both “design-peak” daily-mean temperature and the distribution of diurnal range in hourly temperature (i.e., diurnal temperature amplitude). Our study indicates that homeostatic building with natural cooling (by cooling tower alone) is possible only in locations of special meso-scale climatic condition such as Sacramento, CA. In other locations the use of cooling tower alone can only achieve homeostasis

Modeling of electromigration salt removal methods in building materials

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johannesson, Björn; Ottosen, Lisbeth M.

2008-01-01

for salt attack of various kinds, is one potential method to preserve old building envelopes. By establishing a model for ionic multi-species diffusion, which also accounts for external applied electrical fields, it is proposed that an important complement to the experimental tests and that verification...... with its ionic mobility properties. It is, further, assumed that Gauss’s law can be used to calculate the internal electrical field induced by the diffusion it self. In this manner the external electrical field applied can be modeled, simply, by assigning proper boundary conditions for the equation...

Buildings Lean Maintenance Implementation Model

Science.gov (United States)

Abreu, Antonio; Calado, João; Requeijo, José

2016-11-01

Nowadays, companies in global markets have to achieve high levels of performance and competitiveness to stay "alive".Within this assumption, the building maintenance cannot be done in a casual and improvised way due to the costs related. Starting with some discussion about lean management and building maintenance, this paper introduces a model to support the Lean Building Maintenance (LBM) approach. Finally based on a real case study from a Portuguese company, the benefits, challenges and difficulties are presented and discussed.

Modelling the probability of building fires

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vojtěch Barták

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Systematic spatial risk analysis plays a crucial role in preventing emergencies.In the Czech Republic, risk mapping is currently based on the risk accumulationprinciple, area vulnerability, and preparedness levels of Integrated Rescue Systemcomponents. Expert estimates are used to determine risk levels for individualhazard types, while statistical modelling based on data from actual incidents andtheir possible causes is not used. Our model study, conducted in cooperation withthe Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic as a model within the Liberec andHradec Králové regions, presents an analytical procedure leading to the creation ofbuilding fire probability maps based on recent incidents in the studied areas andon building parameters. In order to estimate the probability of building fires, aprediction model based on logistic regression was used. Probability of fire calculatedby means of model parameters and attributes of specific buildings can subsequentlybe visualized in probability maps.

Guidelines for Using Building Information Modeling for Energy Analysis of Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Reeves

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Building energy modeling (BEM, a subset of building information modeling (BIM, integrates energy analysis into the design, construction, and operation and maintenance of buildings. As there are various existing BEM tools available, there is a need to evaluate the utility of these tools in various phases of the building lifecycle. The goal of this research was to develop guidelines for evaluation and selection of BEM tools to be used in particular building lifecycle phases. The objectives of this research were to: (1 Evaluate existing BEM tools; (2 Illustrate the application of the three BEM tools; (3 Re-evaluate the three BEM tools; and (4 Develop guidelines for evaluation, selection and application of BEM tools in the design, construction and operation/maintenance phases of buildings. Twelve BEM tools were initially evaluated using four criteria: interoperability, usability, available inputs, and available outputs. Each of the top three BEM tools selected based on this initial evaluation was used in a case study to simulate and evaluate energy usage, daylighting performance, and natural ventilation for two academic buildings (LEED-certified and non-LEED-certified. The results of the case study were used to re-evaluate the three BEM tools using the initial criteria with addition of the two new criteria (speed and accuracy, and to develop guidelines for evaluating and selecting BEM tools to analyze building energy performance. The major contribution of this research is the development of these guidelines that can help potential BEM users to identify the most appropriate BEM tool for application in particular building lifecycle phases.

Statistical models describing the energy signature of buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bacher, Peder; Madsen, Henrik; Thavlov, Anders

2010-01-01

Approximately one third of the primary energy production in Denmark is used for heating in buildings. Therefore efforts to accurately describe and improve energy performance of the building mass are very important. For this purpose statistical models describing the energy signature of a building, i...... or varying energy prices. The paper will give an overview of statistical methods and applied models based on experiments carried out in FlexHouse, which is an experimental building in SYSLAB, Risø DTU. The models are of different complexity and can provide estimates of physical quantities such as UA......-values, time constants of the building, and other parameters related to the heat dynamics. A method for selecting the most appropriate model for a given building is outlined and finally a perspective of the applications is given. Aknowledgements to the Danish Energy Saving Trust and the Interreg IV ``Vind i...

DEVELOPING VERIFICATION SYSTEMS FOR BUILDING INFORMATION MODELS OF HERITAGE BUILDINGS WITH HETEROGENEOUS DATASETS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Chow

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The digitization and abstraction of existing buildings into building information models requires the translation of heterogeneous datasets that may include CAD, technical reports, historic texts, archival drawings, terrestrial laser scanning, and photogrammetry into model elements. In this paper, we discuss a project undertaken by the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS that explored the synthesis of heterogeneous datasets for the development of a building information model (BIM for one of Canada’s most significant heritage assets – the Centre Block of the Parliament Hill National Historic Site. The scope of the project included the development of an as-found model of the century-old, six-story building in anticipation of specific model uses for an extensive rehabilitation program. The as-found Centre Block model was developed in Revit using primarily point cloud data from terrestrial laser scanning. The data was captured by CIMS in partnership with Heritage Conservation Services (HCS, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC, using a Leica C10 and P40 (exterior and large interior spaces and a Faro Focus (small to mid-sized interior spaces. Secondary sources such as archival drawings, photographs, and technical reports were referenced in cases where point cloud data was not available. As a result of working with heterogeneous data sets, a verification system was introduced in order to communicate to model users/viewers the source of information for each building element within the model.

BUILDING DETECTION USING AERIAL IMAGES AND DIGITAL SURFACE MODELS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Mu

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In this paper a method for building detection in aerial images based on variational inference of logistic regression is proposed. It consists of three steps. In order to characterize the appearances of buildings in aerial images, an effective bag-of-Words (BoW method is applied for feature extraction in the first step. In the second step, a classifier of logistic regression is learned using these local features. The logistic regression can be trained using different methods. In this paper we adopt a fully Bayesian treatment for learning the classifier, which has a number of obvious advantages over other learning methods. Due to the presence of hyper prior in the probabilistic model of logistic regression, approximate inference methods have to be applied for prediction. In order to speed up the inference, a variational inference method based on mean field instead of stochastic approximation such as Markov Chain Monte Carlo is applied. After the prediction, a probabilistic map is obtained. In the third step, a fully connected conditional random field model is formulated and the probabilistic map is used as the data term in the model. A mean field inference is utilized in order to obtain a binary building mask. A benchmark data set consisting of aerial images and digital surfaced model (DSM released by ISPRS for 2D semantic labeling is used for performance evaluation. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Refurbishment and school buildings management in a smart building environment

Science.gov (United States)

Di Giuda, Giuseppe Martino; Villa, Valentina; Tagliabue, Lavinia Chiara; Giana, Paolo Ettore; Rinaldi, Stefano; Ciribini, Angelo Luigi Camillo

2018-05-01

Building Information Modelling is a methodology, which is able to take into account many data, both geometrical and non-geometrical, in order to evaluate at the actual condition of the asset. The project has the scope of evaluating the conditions of different school buildings, in order to develop a way to choose the best-tailored management solution to the owner. A further step is the management and planning of design solutions during the life cycle customized on monitored buildings' conditions. The research work focuses on providing a support decisions concerning the gap between the present building state laws and the current state of the existing buildings. The process will be developed in an expanded BIM environment, using sensors, which will give back the state of the consistency of the actual conditions to enable the buildings to adapt themselves in the best way into their specific constraints and boundaries. The results of the study are (i) a complete workflow to make decision and the possibility to shape the decision process on an objective through a scientific approach, (ii) evaluate the current state of the asset and (iii) manage maintenance in the lifespan. Further development will take in consideration all the aspects related to management of big data environment generated by a smart buildings system.

Iterative-build OMIT maps: map improvement by iterative model building and refinement without model bias

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terwilliger, Thomas C.; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.; Afonine, Pavel V.; Moriarty, Nigel W.; Adams, Paul D.; Read, Randy J.; Zwart, Peter H.; Hung, Li-Wei

2008-01-01

An OMIT procedure is presented that has the benefits of iterative model building density modification and refinement yet is essentially unbiased by the atomic model that is built. A procedure for carrying out iterative model building, density modification and refinement is presented in which the density in an OMIT region is essentially unbiased by an atomic model. Density from a set of overlapping OMIT regions can be combined to create a composite ‘iterative-build’ OMIT map that is everywhere unbiased by an atomic model but also everywhere benefiting from the model-based information present elsewhere in the unit cell. The procedure may have applications in the validation of specific features in atomic models as well as in overall model validation. The procedure is demonstrated with a molecular-replacement structure and with an experimentally phased structure and a variation on the method is demonstrated by removing model bias from a structure from the Protein Data Bank

The theoretical modelling of aerosol behaviour within containment buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dunbar, I.H.

1988-01-01

The modelling of the deposition of aerosol particles within the containment building plays an important part in determining the effectiveness of the building in reducing releases of activity following accidents. This paper describes attempts to ensure the accuracy of computer codes which model aerosol behaviour, with special reference to the code AEROSIM-M. Code intercomparisons have been used to test the reliability of the coding and the accuracy of the numerical methods. Those codes which assume that the particle size distribution is always lognormal give significantly different results from those which do not make this assumption but instead discretise the range of particle sizes. When the same physical assumptions are made, the predictions of different discrete codes are in reasonable agreement. In comparisons between an earlier version of AEROSIM and sodium fire experiments, the code achieved good agreement on the overall time-scale of deposition. An extensive set of tests of AEROSIM-M against experiments relevant to LWR conditions is underway. (author)

Model-based and model-free “plug-and-play” building energy efficient control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baldi, Simone; Michailidis, Iakovos; Ravanis, Christos; Kosmatopoulos, Elias B.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • “Plug-and-play” Building Optimization and Control (BOC) driven by building data. • Ability to handle the large-scale and complex nature of the BOC problem. • Adaptation to learn the optimal BOC policy when no building model is available. • Comparisons with rule-based and advanced BOC strategies. • Simulation and real-life experiments in a ten-office building. - Abstract: Considerable research efforts in Building Optimization and Control (BOC) have been directed toward the development of “plug-and-play” BOC systems that can achieve energy efficiency without compromising thermal comfort and without the need of qualified personnel engaged in a tedious and time-consuming manual fine-tuning phase. In this paper, we report on how a recently introduced Parametrized Cognitive Adaptive Optimization – abbreviated as PCAO – can be used toward the design of both model-based and model-free “plug-and-play” BOC systems, with minimum human effort required to accomplish the design. In the model-based case, PCAO assesses the performance of its control strategy via a simulation model of the building dynamics; in the model-free case, PCAO optimizes its control strategy without relying on any model of the building dynamics. Extensive simulation and real-life experiments performed on a 10-office building demonstrate the effectiveness of the PCAO–BOC system in providing significant energy efficiency and improved thermal comfort. The mechanisms embedded within PCAO render it capable of automatically and quickly learning an efficient BOC strategy either in the presence of complex nonlinear simulation models of the building dynamics (model-based) or when no model for the building dynamics is available (model-free). Comparative studies with alternative state-of-the-art BOC systems show the effectiveness of the PCAO–BOC solution

Multidisciplinary Energy Assessment of Tertiary Buildings: Automated Geomatic Inspection, Building Information Modeling Reconstruction and Building Performance Simulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Faustino Patiño-Cambeiro

2017-07-01

Full Text Available There is an urgent need for energy efficiency in buildings within the European framework, considering its environmental implications, and Europe’s energy dependence. Furthermore, the need for enhancing and increasing productivity in the building industry turns new technologies and building energy performance simulation environments into extremely interesting solutions towards rigorous analysis and decision making in renovation within acceptable risk levels. The present work describes a multidisciplinary approach for the estimation of the energy performance of an educational building. The research involved data acquisition with advanced geomatic tools, the development of an optimized building information model, and energy assessment in Building Performance Simulation (BPS software. Interoperability issues were observed in the different steps of the process. The inspection and diagnostic phases were conducted in a timely, accurate manner thanks to automated data acquisition and subsequent analysis using Building Information Modeling based tools (BIM-based tools. Energy simulation was performed using Design Builder, and the results obtained were compared with those yielded by the official software tool established by Spanish regulations for energy certification. The discrepancies between the results of both programs have proven that the official software program is conservative in this sense. This may cause the depreciation of the assessed buildings.

Comparison of Demand Response Performance with an EnergyPlus Model in a Low Energy Campus Building

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dudley, Junqiao Han; Black, Doug; Apte, Mike; Piette, Mary Ann; Berkeley, Pam

2010-05-14

We have studied a low energy building on a campus of the University of California. It has efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, consisting of a dual-fan/dual-duct variable air volume (VAV) system. As a major building on the campus, it was included in two demand response (DR) events in the summers of 2008 and 2009. With chilled water supplied by thermal energy storage in the central plant, cooling fans played a critical role during DR events. In this paper, an EnergyPlus model of the building was developed and calibrated. We compared both whole-building and HVAC fan energy consumption with model predictions to understand why demand savings in 2009 were much lower than in 2008. We also used model simulations of the study building to assess pre-cooling, a strategy that has been shown to improve demand saving and thermal comfort in many types of building. This study indicates a properly calibrated EnergyPlus model can reasonably predict demand savings from DR events and can be useful for designing or optimizing DR strategies.

ARMAGH OBSERVATORY – HISTORIC BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING FOR VIRTUAL LEARNING IN BUILDING CONSERVATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Murphy

2017-08-01

Full Text Available In this paper the recording and design for a Virtual Reality Immersive Model of Armagh Observatory is presented, which will replicate the historic buildings and landscape with distant meridian markers and position of its principal historic instruments within a model of the night sky showing the position of bright stars. The virtual reality model can be used for educational purposes allowing the instruments within the historic building model to be manipulated within 3D space to demonstrate how the position measurements of stars were made in the 18th century. A description is given of current student and researchers activities concerning on-site recording and surveying and the virtual modelling of the buildings and landscape. This is followed by a design for a Virtual Reality Immersive Model of Armagh Observatory use game engine and virtual learning platforms and concepts.

System Dynamics as Model-Based Theory Building

OpenAIRE

Schwaninger, Markus; Grösser, Stefan N.

2008-01-01

This paper introduces model-based theory building as a feature of system dynamics (SD) with large potential. It presents a systemic approach to actualizing that potential, thereby opening up a new perspective on theory building in the social sciences. The question addressed is if and how SD enables the construction of high-quality theories. This contribution is based on field experiment type projects which have been focused on model-based theory building, specifically the construction of a mi...

PLACE-BASED GREEN BUILDING: INTEGRATING LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL AND PLANNING ANALYSIS INTO GREEN BUILDING GUIDELINES

Science.gov (United States)

This project will develop a model for place-based green building guidelines based on an analysis of local environmental, social, and land use conditions. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a methodology and model for placing green buildings within their local cont...

EvoBuild: A Quickstart Toolkit for Programming Agent-Based Models of Evolutionary Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Wagh, Aditi; Wilensky, Uri

2018-04-01

Extensive research has shown that one of the benefits of programming to learn about scientific phenomena is that it facilitates learning about mechanisms underlying the phenomenon. However, using programming activities in classrooms is associated with costs such as requiring additional time to learn to program or students needing prior experience with programming. This paper presents a class of programming environments that we call quickstart: Environments with a negligible threshold for entry into programming and a modest ceiling. We posit that such environments can provide benefits of programming for learning without incurring associated costs for novice programmers. To make this claim, we present a design-based research study conducted to compare programming models of evolutionary processes with a quickstart toolkit with exploring pre-built models of the same processes. The study was conducted in six seventh grade science classes in two schools. Students in the programming condition used EvoBuild, a quickstart toolkit for programming agent-based models of evolutionary processes, to build their NetLogo models. Students in the exploration condition used pre-built NetLogo models. We demonstrate that although students came from a range of academic backgrounds without prior programming experience, and all students spent the same number of class periods on the activities including the time students took to learn programming in this environment, EvoBuild students showed greater learning about evolutionary mechanisms. We discuss the implications of this work for design research on programming environments in K-12 science education.

A review of building information modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Wen; Han, Rui

2018-05-01

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is widely seen as a catalyst for innovation and productivity. It is becoming standard for new construction and is the most significant technology changing how we design, build, use and manage the building. It is a dominant technological trend in the software industry and although the theoretical groundwork was laid in the previous century, it is a popular topic in academic research. BIM is discussed in this study, which results can provide better and more comprehensive choices for building owners, designers, and developers in future.

Toward a virtual building laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Klems, J.H.; Finlayson, E.U.; Olsen, T.H.; Banks, D.W.; Pallis, J.M.

1999-03-01

In order to achieve in a timely manner the large energy and dollar savings technically possible through improvements in building energy efficiency, it will be necessary to solve the problem of design failure risk. The most economical method of doing this would be to learn to calculate building performance with sufficient detail, accuracy and reliability to avoid design failure. Existing building simulation models (BSM) are a large step in this direction, but are still not capable of this level of modeling. Developments in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques now allow one to construct a road map from present BSM's to a complete building physical model. The most useful first step is a building interior model (BIM) that would allow prediction of local conditions affecting occupant health and comfort. To provide reliable prediction a BIM must incorporate the correct physical boundary conditions on a building interior. Doing so raises a number of specific technical problems and research questions. The solution of these within a context useful for building research and design is not likely to result from other research on CFD, which is directed toward the solution of different types of problems. A six-step plan for incorporating the correct boundary conditions within the context of the model problem of a large atrium has been outlined. A promising strategy for constructing a BIM is the overset grid technique for representing a building space in a CFD calculation. This technique promises to adapt well to building design and allows a step-by-step approach. A state-of-the-art CFD computer code using this technique has been adapted to the problem and can form the departure point for this research.

COMPLEMENTARITY OF HISTORIC BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

X. Yang

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we discuss the potential of integrating both semantically rich models from Building Information Modelling (BIM and Geographical Information Systems (GIS to build the detailed 3D historic model. BIM contributes to the creation of a digital representation having all physical and functional building characteristics in several dimensions, as e.g. XYZ (3D, time and non-architectural information that are necessary for construction and management of buildings. GIS has potential in handling and managing spatial data especially exploring spatial relationships and is widely used in urban modelling. However, when considering heritage modelling, the specificity of irregular historical components makes it problematic to create the enriched model according to its complex architectural elements obtained from point clouds. Therefore, some open issues limiting the historic building 3D modelling will be discussed in this paper: how to deal with the complex elements composing historic buildings in BIM and GIS environment, how to build the enriched historic model, and why to construct different levels of details? By solving these problems, conceptualization, documentation and analysis of enriched Historic Building Information Modelling are developed and compared to traditional 3D models aimed primarily for visualization.

Analyzing energy consumption while heating one-layer building envelopes in conditions of intermittent heating

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vytchikov Yury

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on energy consumption for heating single layer building envelopes, used in conditions of intermittent heating in different physical and mechanical and thermophysical parameters of construction materials. The authors investigated several variants of single-layer building envelopes, used frequently in building practice, with different density and coefficients of building materials thermal conductivity. For each variant of a building envelope heat leakage and time spent on heating were calculated. Heating time was calculated by both exact and approximate analytical method. Then the researchers draw a graphic dependence of energy consumption on the density of the material taking this computational data as a basis. Further analysis showed that building envelopes made of lightweight aggregate concrete and porous concrete were the most energy efficient.This paper focuses on energy consumption for heating single layer building envelopes, used in conditions of intermittent heating in different physical and mechanical and thermophysical parameters of construction materials. The authors investigated several variants of single-layer building envelopes, used frequently in building practice, with different density and coefficients of building materials thermal conductivity. For each variant of a building envelope heat leakage and time spent on heating were calculated. Heating time was calculated by both exact and approximate analytical method. Then the researchers draw a graphic dependence of energy consumption on the density of the material taking this computational data as a basis. Further analysis showed that building envelopes made of lightweight aggregate concrete and porous concrete were the most energy efficient.

Structured building model reduction toward parallel simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dobbs, Justin R. [Cornell University; Hencey, Brondon M. [Cornell University

2013-08-26

Building energy model reduction exchanges accuracy for improved simulation speed by reducing the number of dynamical equations. Parallel computing aims to improve simulation times without loss of accuracy but is poorly utilized by contemporary simulators and is inherently limited by inter-processor communication. This paper bridges these disparate techniques to implement efficient parallel building thermal simulation. We begin with a survey of three structured reduction approaches that compares their performance to a leading unstructured method. We then use structured model reduction to find thermal clusters in the building energy model and allocate processing resources. Experimental results demonstrate faster simulation and low error without any interprocessor communication.

Modelling the heat dynamics of buildings using stochastic

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Klaus Kaae; Madsen, Henrik

2000-01-01

This paper describes the continuous time modelling of the heat dynamics of a building. The considered building is a residential like test house divided into two test rooms with a water based central heating. Each test room is divided into thermal zones in order to describe both short and long term...... variations. Besides modelling the heat transfer between thermal zones, attention is put on modelling the heat input from radiators and solar radiation. The applied modelling procedure is based on collected building performance data and statistical methods. The statistical methods are used in parameter...

Waste conditioning components for a new radwaste building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewitz, J.C.; Stoelken, G.

2001-01-01

In the year 1999 Hansa Projekt Anlagentechnik GmbH made a basic study for the equipment of a new to be build radwaste building for TPC, Taiwan. Within an offer there was made an overall concept together with a proposal for system integration including supply, erection and put into operation for the following components supercompactor with in-/output device, overpack-filling station, resindrying- and filling unit, sorting tables for solid radwaste, cementation unit for liquid radwaste, cementation unit for grouting, drum inspection and decontamination station, storages for primary and conditioned radwaste, HVAC with filtration for several components and a roller conveyor system for transfer throughout the radwaste building. This overall concept was to be realized very similar by the client. The HPA scope of supply was focused onto the key components supercompactor with in-/output device, roller conveyor and turntable for cartridges and pellets, overpack-filling station, sorting tables, HVAC with filtration for supercompactor and sorting tables, and last but not least a drum inspection and decontamination system. In the following at first the functioning of HPA-components and the system as whole will be declared. At second components and system will be shown in detail together with figures and technical data. (orig.)

A View on Future Building System Modeling and Simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wetter, Michael

2011-04-01

This chapter presents what a future environment for building system modeling and simulation may look like. As buildings continue to require increased performance and better comfort, their energy and control systems are becoming more integrated and complex. We therefore focus in this chapter on the modeling, simulation and analysis of building energy and control systems. Such systems can be classified as heterogeneous systems because they involve multiple domains, such as thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer, electrical systems, control systems and communication systems. Also, they typically involve multiple temporal and spatial scales, and their evolution can be described by coupled differential equations, discrete equations and events. Modeling and simulating such systems requires a higher level of abstraction and modularisation to manage the increased complexity compared to what is used in today's building simulation programs. Therefore, the trend towards more integrated building systems is likely to be a driving force for changing the status quo of today's building simulation programs. Thischapter discusses evolving modeling requirements and outlines a path toward a future environment for modeling and simulation of heterogeneous building systems.A range of topics that would require many additional pages of discussion has been omitted. Examples include computational fluid dynamics for air and particle flow in and around buildings, people movement, daylight simulation, uncertainty propagation and optimisation methods for building design and controls. For different discussions and perspectives on the future of building modeling and simulation, we refer to Sahlin (2000), Augenbroe (2001) and Malkawi and Augenbroe (2004).

Moisture conditions in buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rode, Carsten

2012-01-01

Growth of mould requires the presence of moisture at a certain high level. In a heated indoor environment such moisture levels occur only if there is a reason for the moisture supply. Such moisture can come from the use of the building, because of malfunctioning constructions, or it can be the re......Growth of mould requires the presence of moisture at a certain high level. In a heated indoor environment such moisture levels occur only if there is a reason for the moisture supply. Such moisture can come from the use of the building, because of malfunctioning constructions, or it can...

Model building and new particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frampton, P.H.

1992-01-01

After an outline of the Standard Model, indications of new physics beyond it are discussed. The nature of model building is illustrated by three examples which predict, respectively, new particles called the axigluon, sarks and the aspon. (author). 11 refs

Wind-driven rain as a boundary condition for HAM simulations: analysis of simplified modelling approaches

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Janssen, Hans; Blocken, Bert; Roels, Staf

2007-01-01

While the numerical simulation of moisture transfer inside building components is currently undergoing standardisation, the modelling of the atmospheric boundary conditions has received far less attention. This article analyses the modelling of the wind-driven-rain load on building facades...... though: the full variability with the perpendicular wind speed and horizontal rain intensity should be preserved, where feasible, for improved estimations of the moisture transfer in building components. In the concluding section, it is moreover shown that the dependence of the surface moisture transfer...

A simplified model of dynamic interior cooling load evaluation for office buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ding, Yan; Zhang, Qiang; Wang, Zhaoxia; Liu, Min; He, Qing

2016-01-01

Highlights: • The core interior disturbance was determined by principle component analysis. • Influences of occupants on cooling load should be described using time series. • A simplified model was built to evaluate dynamic interior building cooling load. - Abstract: Predicted cooling load is a valuable tool for assessing the operation of air-conditioning systems. Compared with exterior cooling load, interior cooling load is more unpredictable. According to principle components analysis, occupancy was proved to be a typical factor influencing interior cooling loads in buildings. By exploring the regularity of interior disturbances in an office building, a simplified evaluation model for interior cooling load was established in this paper. The stochastic occupancy rate was represented by a Markov transition model. Equipment power, lighting power and fresh air were all related to occupancy rate based on time sequence. The superposition of different types of interior cooling loads was also considered in the evaluation model. The error between the evaluation results and measurement results was found to be lower than 10%. In reference to the cooling loads calculated by the traditional design method and area-based method in case study office rooms, the evaluated cooling loads were suitable for operation regulation.

EXPERIMENTAL CALIBRATION OF UNDERGROUND HEAT TRANSFER MODELS UNDER A WINERY BUILDING IN A RURAL AREA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco Tinti

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Ground temperature and hydrogeological conditions are key parameters for many engineering applications, such as the design of building basements and underground spaces and the assessment of shallow geothermal energy potential. Especially in urban areas, in the very shallow depths, it is diffi cult to fi nd natural undisturbed underground thermal conditions because of anthropic interventions. The assessment of underground behaviour in disturbed conditions will become more and more relevant because of increasing awareness to energy effi ciency and renewable energy topics. The purpose of this paper is to show a three-dimensional representation - based on models calibrated on experimental data - of the underground thermal behaviour aff ected by a building in a rural area in Italy. Temperature varies in space and time and it depends on ground, climate and building characteristics, and all these parameters are taken into account by the seasonal periodic modelling implemented. The results obtained in a context of low urbanization indirectly suggest the importance of these eff ects in dense urban areas; taking greater account of these aspects could lead to improvements in the design of underground spaces and geo-exchanger fi elds for geothermal energy exploitation.

Infrared survey of 50 buildings constructed during 100 years: thermal performances and damage conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Ljungberg, Sven-Ake

1995-03-01

Different building constructions and craftsmanship give rise to different thermal performance and damage conditions. The building stock of most industrial countries consists of buildings of various age, and constructions, from old historic buildings with heavy stone or wooden construction, to new buildings with heavy or light concrete construction, or modern steel or wooden construction. In this paper the result from a detailed infrared survey of 50 buildings from six Swedish military camps is presented. The presentation is limited to a comparison of thermal performance and damage conditions of buildings of various ages, functions, and constructions, of a building period of more than 100 years. The result is expected to be relevant even to civilian buildings. Infrared surveys were performed during 1992-1993, with airborne, and mobile short- and longwave infrared systems, out- and indoor thermography. Interpretation and analysis of infrared data was performed with interactive image and analyzing systems. Field inspections were carried out with fiber optics system, and by ocular inspections. Air-exchange rate was measured in order to quantify air leakages through the building envelope, indicated in thermograms. The objects studied were single-family houses, barracks, office-, service-, school- and exercise buildings, military hotels and restaurants, aircraft hangars, and ship factory buildings. The main conclusions from this study are that most buildings from 1880 - 1940 have a solid construction with a high quality of craftsmanship, relatively good thermal performance, due to extremely thick walls, and adding insulation at the attic floor. From about 1940 - 1960 the quality of construction, thermal performance and craftsmanship seem to vary a lot. Buildings constructed during the period of 1960 - 1990 have in general the best thermal performance due to a better insulation capacity, however, also one finds here the greatest variety of problems. The result from this

Analysis of a Residential Building Energy Consumption Demand Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meng Liu

2011-03-01

Full Text Available In order to estimate the energy consumption demand of residential buildings, this paper first discusses the status and shortcomings of current domestic energy consumption models. Then it proposes and develops a residential building energy consumption demand model based on a back propagation (BP neural network model. After that, taking residential buildings in Chongqing (P.R. China as an example, 16 energy consumption indicators are introduced as characteristics of the residential buildings in Chongqing. The index system of the BP neutral network prediction model is established and the multi-factorial BP neural network prediction model of Chongqing residential building energy consumption is developed using the Cshap language, based on the SQL server 2005 platform. The results obtained by applying the model in Chongqing are in good agreement with actual ones. In addition, the model provides corresponding approximate data by taking into account the potential energy structure adjustments and relevant energy policy regulations.

An open-source automated continuous condition-based maintenance platform for commercial buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Katipamula, Srinivas; Gowri, Krishnan; Hernandez, George

2016-09-09

This paper describes one such reference process that can be deployed to provide continuous automated conditioned-based maintenance management for buildings that have BIM, a building automation system (BAS) and a computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) systems. The process can be deployed using an open source transactional network platform, VOLTTRON™, designed for distributed sensing and controls and supports both energy efficiency and grid services.

Impacts of city-block-scale countermeasures against urban heat-island phenomena upon a building's energy-consumption for air-conditioning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kikegawa, Yukihiro [Department of Environmental Systems, Meisei University, 2-1-1 Hodokubo, Hino-shi, Tokyo 191-8506 (Japan); Genchi, Yutaka [Research Center for Life Cycle Assessment, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 16-1 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8569 (Japan); Kondo, Hiroaki [Institute for Environmental Management Technology, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 16-1 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8569 (Japan); Hanaki, Keisuke [Department of Urban Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656 (Japan)

2006-06-15

This study quantifies the possible impacts of urban heat-island countermeasures upon buildings' energy use during summer in Tokyo metropolis. Considering the dependency of the buildings air temperature upon the local urban canopy structure, Tokyo urban canopies were classified in the city-block-scale using the sky-view factor (svf). Then, a multi-scale model system describing the interaction between buildings' energy use and urban meteorological conditions was applied to each classified canopy. In terms of urban warming alleviation and cooling energy saving, simulations suggested that the reduction in the air-conditioning anthropogenic heat could be the most effective measure in office buildings' canopies, and that vegetative fraction increase on the side walls of buildings in residential canopies. Both measures indicated daily and spatially averaged decreases in near-ground summer air temperature of 0.2-1.2{sup o}C. The simulations also suggested these temperature decreases could result in the buildings' cooling energy-savings of 4-40%, indicating remarkable savings in residential canopies. These temperature drops and energy savings tended to increase with the decrease of the svf of urban canopies. (author)

Methodology for Modeling Building Energy Performance across the Commercial Sector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Griffith, B.; Long, N.; Torcellini, P.; Judkoff, R.; Crawley, D.; Ryan, J.

2008-03-01

This report uses EnergyPlus simulations of each building in the 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) to document and demonstrate bottom-up methods of modeling the entire U.S. commercial buildings sector (EIA 2006). The ability to use a whole-building simulation tool to model the entire sector is of interest because the energy models enable us to answer subsequent 'what-if' questions that involve technologies and practices related to energy. This report documents how the whole-building models were generated from the building characteristics in 2003 CBECS and compares the simulation results to the survey data for energy use.

Heterotic model building: 16 special manifolds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He, Yang-Hui; Lee, Seung-Joo; Lukas, Andre; Sun, Chuang

2014-01-01

We study heterotic model building on 16 specific Calabi-Yau manifolds constructed as hypersurfaces in toric four-folds. These 16 manifolds are the only ones among the more than half a billion manifolds in the Kreuzer-Skarke list with a non-trivial first fundamental group. We classify the line bundle models on these manifolds, both for SU(5) and SO(10) GUTs, which lead to consistent supersymmetric string vacua and have three chiral families. A total of about 29000 models is found, most of them corresponding to SO(10) GUTs. These models constitute a starting point for detailed heterotic model building on Calabi-Yau manifolds in the Kreuzer-Skarke list. The data for these models can be downloaded http://www-thphys.physics.ox.ac.uk/projects/CalabiYau/toricdata/index.html.

Development of an atmospheric diffusion numerical model for a nuclear facility. Numerical calculation method incorporating building effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sada, Koichi; Michioka, Takenobu; Ichikawa, Yoichi

2002-01-01

Because effluent gas is sometimes released from low positions, viz., near the ground surface and around buildings, the effects caused by buildings within the site area are not negligible for gas diffusion predictions. For these reasons, the effects caused by buildings for gas diffusion are considered under the terrain following calculation coordinate system in this report. Numerical calculation meshes on the ground surface are treated as the building with the adaptation of wall function techniques of turbulent quantities in the flow calculations using a turbulence closure model. The reflection conditions of released particles on building surfaces are taken into consideration in the diffusion calculation using the Lagrangian particle model. Obtained flow and diffusion calculation results are compared with those of wind tunnel experiments around the building. It was apparent that features observed in a wind tunnel, viz., the formation of cavity regions behind the building and the gas diffusion to the ground surface behind the building, are also obtained by numerical calculation. (author)

Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model

Science.gov (United States)

The Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model (I-BEAM), released in 2002, is a guidance tool designed for use by building professionals and others interested in indoor air quality in commercial buildings.

Climate change and high-resolution whole-building numerical modelling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blocken, B.J.E.; Briggen, P.M.; Schellen, H.L.; Hensen, J.L.M.

2010-01-01

This paper briefly discusses the need of high-resolution whole-building numerical modelling in the context of climate change. High-resolution whole-building numerical modelling can be used for detailed analysis of the potential consequences of climate change on buildings and to evaluate remedial

Working group report: Flavor physics and model building

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

cO Indian Academy of Sciences. Vol. ... This is the report of flavor physics and model building working group at ... those in model building have been primarily devoted to neutrino physics. ..... [12] Andrei Gritsan, ICHEP 2004, Beijing, China.

Application of 6D Building Information Model (6D BIM) for Business-storage Building in Slovenia

Science.gov (United States)

Pučko, Zoran; Vincek, Dražen; Štrukelj, Andrej; Šuman, Nataša

2017-10-01

The aim of this paper is to present an application of 6D building information modelling (6D BIM) on a real business-storage building in Slovenia. First, features of building maintenance in general are described according to the current Slovenian legislation, and also a general principle of BIM is given. After that, step-by-step activities for modelling 6D BIM are exposed, namely from Element list for maintenance, determination of their lifetime and service measures, cost analysing and time analysing to 6D BIM modelling. The presented 6D BIM model is designed in a unique way in which cost analysis is performed as 5D BIM model with linked data to use BIM Construction Project Management Software (Vico Office), integrated with 3D BIM model, whereas time analysis as 4D BIM model is carried out as non-linked data with the help of Excel (without connection to 3D BIM model). The paper is intended to serve as a guide to the building owners to prepare 6D BIM and to provide an insight into the relevant dynamic information about intervals and costs for execution of maintenance works in the whole building lifecycle.

Conservative modelling of the moisture and heat transfer in building components under atmospheric excitation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Janssen, Hans; Blocken, Bert; Carmeliet, Jan

2007-01-01

While the transfer equations for moisture and heat in building components are currently undergoing standardisation, atmospheric boundary conditions, conservative modelling and numerical efficiency are not addressed. In a first part, this paper adds a comprehensive description of those boundary...

BIM-enabled Conceptual Modelling and Representation of Building Circulation

OpenAIRE

Lee, Jin Kook; Kim, Mi Jeong

2014-01-01

This paper describes how a building information modelling (BIM)-based approach for building circulation enables us to change the process of building design in terms of its computational representation and processes, focusing on the conceptual modelling and representation of circulation within buildings. BIM has been designed for use by several BIM authoring tools, in particular with the widely known interoperable industry foundation classes (IFCs), which follow an object-oriented data modelli...

Whole-Building Hygrothermal Modeling in IEA Annex 41

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rode, Carsten; Woloszyn, Monika

2007-01-01

. The IEA Annex 41 project runs from 2004–2007, coming to conclusion just before the Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings X conference. The Annex 41 project and its Subtask 1 do not aim to produce one state-of-the-art hygrothermal simulation model for whole buildings, but rather...... the modeling, free scientific contributions have been invited from specific fields that need the most attention in order to better accomplish the integral building simulations. This paper will give an overview of the advances in whole-building hygrothermal simulation that have been accomplished and presented...

Modeling and Control of AHUs in Building HVAC Systems

OpenAIRE

Liang, Wei

2014-01-01

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) is a mechanical system that provides thermal comfort and accepted indoor air quality often instrumented for large-scale buildings. The HVAC system takes a dominant portion of overall building energy consumption and accounts for 50% of the energy used in the U.S. commercial and residential buildings in 2012. The performance and energy saving of building HVAC systems can be significantly improved by the implementation of better and smarter contro...

Experimental and analytical studies of a deeply embedded reactor building model considering soil-building interaction. Pt. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tanaka, H.; Ohta, T.; Uchiyama, S.

1979-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe the dynamic characteristics of a deeply embedded reactor building model derived from experimental and analytical studies which considers soil-building interaction behaviour. The model building is made of reinforced concrete. It has two stories above ground level and a basement, resting on sandy gravel layer at a depth of 3 meters. The backfill around the building was made to ground level. The model building is simplified and reduced to about one-fifteenth (1/15) of the prototype. It has bearing wall system for the basement and the first story, and frame system for the second. (orig.)

Building energy modeling for green architecture and intelligent dashboard applications

Science.gov (United States)

DeBlois, Justin

Buildings are responsible for 40% of the carbon emissions in the United States. Energy efficiency in this sector is key to reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions. This work studied the passive technique called the roof solar chimney for reducing the cooling load in homes architecturally. Three models of the chimney were created: a zonal building energy model, computational fluid dynamics model, and numerical analytic model. The study estimated the error introduced to the building energy model (BEM) through key assumptions, and then used a sensitivity analysis to examine the impact on the model outputs. The conclusion was that the error in the building energy model is small enough to use it for building simulation reliably. Further studies simulated the roof solar chimney in a whole building, integrated into one side of the roof. Comparisons were made between high and low efficiency constructions, and three ventilation strategies. The results showed that in four US climates, the roof solar chimney results in significant cooling load energy savings of up to 90%. After developing this new method for the small scale representation of a passive architecture technique in BEM, the study expanded the scope to address a fundamental issue in modeling - the implementation of the uncertainty from and improvement of occupant behavior. This is believed to be one of the weakest links in both accurate modeling and proper, energy efficient building operation. A calibrated model of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation's LEED Gold, 3,400 m2 building was created. Then algorithms were developed for integration to the building's dashboard application that show the occupant the energy savings for a variety of behaviors in real time. An approach using neural networks to act on real-time building automation system data was found to be the most accurate and efficient way to predict the current energy savings for each scenario. A stochastic study examined the impact of the

Modeling real conditions of 'Ukrytie' object in 3D measurement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Podbereznyj, S.S.

2001-01-01

The article covers a technology of creation on soft products basis for designing: AutoCad, and computer graphics and animation 3D Studio, 3DS MAX, of 3D model of geometrical parameters of current conditions of building structures, technological equipment, fuel-containing materials, concrete, water of ruined Unit 4, 'Ukryttia' object, of Chernobyl NPP. The model built using the above technology will be applied in the future as a basis when automating the design and computer modeling of processes at the 'Ukryttia' object

A Probabilistic Model for Exteriors of Residential Buildings

KAUST Repository

Fan, Lubin; Wonka, Peter

2016-01-01

We propose a new framework to model the exterior of residential buildings. The main goal of our work is to design a model that can be learned from data that is observable from the outside of a building and that can be trained with widely available

Modeling urban building energy use: A review of modeling approaches and procedures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, Wenliang; Zhou, Yuyu; Cetin, Kristen; Eom, Jiyong; Wang, Yu; Chen, Gang; Zhang, Xuesong

2017-12-01

With rapid urbanization and economic development, the world has been experiencing an unprecedented increase in energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions is a common interest shared by major developed and developing countries, actions to enable these global reductions are generally implemented at the city scale. This is because baseline information from individual cities plays an important role in identifying economical options for improving building energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions. Numerous approaches have been proposed for modeling urban building energy use in the past decades. This paper aims to provide an up-to-date review of the broad categories of energy models for urban buildings and describes the basic workflow of physics-based, bottom-up models and their applications in simulating urban-scale building energy use. Because there are significant differences across models with varied potential for application, strengths and weaknesses of the reviewed models are also presented. This is followed by a discussion of challenging issues associated with model preparation and calibration.

Economic aspects and models for building codes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonke, Jens; Pedersen, Dan Ove; Johnsen, Kjeld

It is the purpose of this bulletin to present an economic model for estimating the consequence of new or changed building codes. The object is to allow comparative analysis in order to improve the basis for decisions in this field. The model is applied in a case study.......It is the purpose of this bulletin to present an economic model for estimating the consequence of new or changed building codes. The object is to allow comparative analysis in order to improve the basis for decisions in this field. The model is applied in a case study....

From 2D to 3D: Using Illumination Cones to Build 3d Face Model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xiao, S S; Jin, M

2006-01-01

To solve the problem derivate by lighting condition and position of the camera, a new method using illumination cones to build 3d face model has been proposed. Due to illumination variability, the same object can show dramatic difference even as being viewed in fixed pose. To handle this variability, an object recognition system must employ a representation that is either invariant to, or can model this variability. The proposed technique presents an appearance-based method for modeling the variability due to illumination in the images of objects. The method differs from past appearance-based methods. Evenmore, a small set of training images is used to generate a representation that the illumination cone models the complete set of images of an object with Lambertian reflectance surface under a combination of arbitrary point light sources at infinity. After building up the illumination cones, researches focus on how to present the 3d model of the face. Combining illumination and texture feature to build up 3d model of the face make it easy solving the problem in recognition of face under different pose

Method for Cost-Benefit Analysis of Improved Indoor Climate Conditions and Reduced Energy Consumption in Office Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Viktoras Dorosevas

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Indoor climate affects health and productivity of the occupants in office buildings, yet in many buildings of this type indoor climate conditions are not well-controlled due to insufficient heating or cooling capacity, high swings of external or internal heat loads, improper control or operation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC equipment, etc. However, maintenance of good indoor environmental conditions in buildings requires increased investments and possible higher energy consumption. This paper focuses on the relation between investment costs for retrofitting HVAC equipment as well as decreased energy use and improved performance of occupants in office buildings. The cost-benefit analysis implementation algorithm is presented in this paper, including energy survey of the building, estimation of occupants dissatisfied by key indoor climate indicators using questionnaire survey and measurements. Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS analysis is used in the proposed method for data processing. A case study of an office building is presented in order to introduce an application example of the proposed method. Results of the study verify the applicability of the proposed algorithm and TOPSIS analysis as a practical tool for office building surveys in order to maximize productivity by means of cost efficient technical building retrofitting solutions.

THE EFFECT OF BUILDING FAÇADE MODEL ON LIGHT DISTRIBUTION (CASE STUDY: MENARA PHINISI BUILDING OF UNM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nurul Jamala

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Global warming issues influence the temperature of the earth surface. It is an impact on energy consumption, especially in buildings. Utilization of daylight is one of the factors that need to be considered, in order to minimize energy consumption as a source of artificial lighting. This study analyzed the distribution of light on the Menara Phinisi building of Makassar State University. Quantitative research method that is to describe the data of simulation in Autodesk Ecotect program. The research objective was to determine the effect of the building facade model on the value of illumination inside the building. Results of the study concluded that the decrease percentage of the distribution of light on the building facade using and not using the facade is 3,16% or 236 lux. Distribution of light in horizontal and diagonal facade models differ in the amount of 2,5%. Design analysis of the building serves as a guide for analyzing the influence of the building facade model so that it can create energy efficient buildings.

Model for Refurbishment of Heritage Buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Torben Valdbjørn

2014-01-01

the Heritage Agency, the Danish Working Environment Authority and the owner as a team cooperated in identifying feasible refurbishments. In this case, the focus centered on restoring and identifying potential energy savings and deciding on energy upgrading measures for the listed complex. The refurbished...... with the requirements for the use of the building. The model focuses on the cooperation and dialogue between authorities and owners, who refurbish heritage buildings. The developed model was used for the refurbishment of the listed complex, Fæstningens Materialgård. Fæstningens Materialgård is a case study where...

BIM-Enabled Conceptual Modelling and Representation of Building Circulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jin Kook Lee

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This paper describes how a building information modelling (BIM-based approach for building circulation enables us to change the process of building design in terms of its computational representation and processes, focusing on the conceptual modelling and representation of circulation within buildings. BIM has been designed for use by several BIM authoring tools, in particular with the widely known interoperable industry foundation classes (IFCs, which follow an object-oriented data modelling methodology. Advances in BIM authoring tools, using space objects and their relations defined in an IFC's schema, have made it possible to model, visualize and analyse circulation within buildings prior to their construction. Agent-based circulation has long been an interdisciplinary topic of research across several areas, including design computing, computer science, architectural morphology, human behaviour and environmental psychology. Such conventional approaches to building circulation are centred on navigational knowledge about built environments, and represent specific circulation paths and regulations. This paper, however, places emphasis on the use of ‘space objects’ in BIM-enabled design processes rather than on circulation agents, the latter of which are not defined in the IFCs' schemas. By introducing and reviewing some associated research and projects, this paper also surveys how such a circulation representation is applicable to the analysis of building circulation-related rules.

The impact of urban open space and 'lift-up' building design on building intake fraction and daily pollutant exposure in idealized urban models.

Science.gov (United States)

Sha, Chenyuan; Wang, Xuemei; Lin, Yuanyuan; Fan, Yifan; Chen, Xi; Hang, Jian

2018-08-15

Sustainable urban design is an effective way to improve urban ventilation and reduce vehicular pollutant exposure to urban residents. This paper investigated the impacts of urban open space and 'lift-up' building design on vehicular CO (carbon monoxide) exposure in typical three-dimensional (3D) urban canopy layer (UCL) models under neutral atmospheric conditions. The building intake fraction (IF) represents the fraction of total vehicular pollutant emissions inhaled by residents when they stay at home. The building daily CO exposure (E t ) means the extent of human beings' contact with CO within one day indoor at home. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations integrating with these two concepts were performed to solve turbulent flow and assess vehicular CO exposure to urban residents. CFD technique with the standard k-ε model was successfully validated by wind tunnel data. The initial numerical UCL model consists of 5-row and 5-column (5×5) cubic buildings (building height H=street width W=30m) with four approaching wind directions (θ=0°, 15°, 30°, 45°). In Group I, one of the 25 building models is removed to attain urban open space settings. In Group II, the first floor (Lift-up1), or second floor (Lift-up2), or third floor (Lift-up3) of all buildings is elevated respectively to create wind pathways through buildings. Compared to the initial case, urban open space can slightly or significantly reduce pollutant exposure for urban residents. As θ=30° and 45°, open space settings are more effective to reduce pollutant exposure than θ=0° and 15°.The pollutant dilution near or surrounding open space and in its adjacent downstream regions is usually enhanced. Lift-up1 and Lift-up2 experience much greater pollutant exposure reduction in all wind directions than Lift-up3 and open space. Although further investigations are still required to provide practical guidelines, this study is one of the first attempts for reducing urban pollutant exposure by

International Energy Agency Building Energy Simulation Test and Diagnostic Method for Heating, Ventilating, and Air-Conditioning Equipment Models (HVAC BESTEST); Volume 1: Cases E100-E200

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Neymark, J.; Judkoff, R.

2002-01-01

This report describes the Building Energy Simulation Test for Heating, Ventilating, and Air-Conditioning Equipment Models (HVAC BESTEST) project conducted by the Tool Evaluation and Improvement International Energy Agency (IEA) Experts Group. The group was composed of experts from the Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC) Programme, Task 22, Subtask A. The current test cases, E100-E200, represent the beginning of work on mechanical equipment test cases; additional cases that would expand the current test suite have been proposed for future development.

Guidelines for developing efficient thermal conduction and storage models within building energy simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hillary, Jason; Walsh, Ed; Shah, Amip; Zhou, Rongliang; Walsh, Pat

2017-01-01

Improving building energy efficiency is of paramount importance due to the large proportion of energy consumed by thermal operations. Consequently, simulating a building's environment has gained popularity for assessing thermal comfort and design. The extended timeframes and large physical scales involved necessitate compact modelling approaches. The accuracy of such simulations is of chief concern, yet there is little guidance offered on achieving accurate solutions whilst mitigating prohibitive computational costs. Therefore, the present study addresses this deficit by providing clear guidance on discretisation levels required for achieving accurate but computationally inexpensive models. This is achieved by comparing numerical models of varying discretisation levels to benchmark analytical solutions with prediction accuracy assessed and reported in terms of governing dimensionless parameters, Biot and Fourier numbers, to ensure generality of findings. Furthermore, spatial and temporal discretisation errors are separated and assessed independently. Contour plots are presented to intuitively determine the optimal discretisation levels and time-steps required to achieve accurate thermal response predictions. Simulations derived from these contour plots were tested against various building conditions with excellent agreement observed throughout. Additionally, various scenarios are highlighted where the classical single lumped capacitance model can be applied for Biot numbers much greater than 0.1 without reducing accuracy. - Highlights: • Addressing the problems of inadequate discretisation within building energy models. • Accuracy of numerical models assessed against analytical solutions. • Fourier and Biot numbers used to provide generality of results for any material. • Contour plots offer intuitive way to interpret results for manual discretisation. • Results show proposed technique promising for automation of discretisation process.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT EMBRAPA: SHARING OUR EXPERIENCE ON THE BUILDING OF A COLLABORATIVE MODEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rivadávia Correa Drummond de Alvarenga Neto

2011-10-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates and analyses the process of building a knowledge management (KM model at Brazil’s Embrapa (The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation. Embrapa is a world class knowledge organization whose mission is to provide feasible solutions for the sustainable development of Brazilian agribusiness through knowledge and technology generation and transfer. The qualitative research strategy used was the study of a single case with incorporated units of analysis and two criteria were observed for the judgment of the quality of the research project: validity of the construct and reliability. Multiple sources of evidence were used and data analysis consisted of three flows of activities: data reduction, data displays and conclusion drawing/verification. The results revealed a robust KM model made of four dynamic axes: (i strategy (a strategic conception of information and knowledge use, (ii environment - four different groups of enabling conditions (social-behavioral, information/communication, cognitive/epistemic and business/managerial, sine qua non conditions for successful implementation, (iii tool box – sets of IT tools and managerial practices and (iv results – in terms of outputs, being both tangible and intangible assets. The conclusions suggest that a collaborative building of a KM model in a diverse and geographically dispersed organization is more likely to succeed than one that is build and implemented from the top-down perspective. Embrapa’s KM Model is more inclined to be a knowledge-based view of organization than merely a KM model. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model Forms

Science.gov (United States)

The Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model (I-BEAM) is a guidance tool designed for use by building professionals and others interested in indoor air quality in commercial buildings.

Failure Mode Estimation of Wolsong Unit 1 Containment Building with respect to Severe Accident Condition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hahm, Dae Gi; Choi, In Kil

2009-01-01

The containment buildings in a nuclear power plant (NPP) are final barriers against the exposure of harmful radiation materials at severe accident condition. Since the accident at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in 1979, it has become necessary to evaluate the internal pressure capacity of the containment buildings for the assessment of the safety of nuclear power plants. According to this necessity, many researchers including Yonezawa et al. and Hu and Lin analyzed the ultimate capacity of prestressed concrete containments subjected to internal pressure which can be occurred at sever accident condition. Especially in Wolsong nuclear power plant, the Unit 1 containment structures were constructed in the late 1970 to early 1980, so that the end of its service life will be reached in near future. Since that the complete decommission and reconstruction of the NPP may cause a huge expenses, an extension of the service time can be a cost-effective alternative. To extend the service time of NPP, an overall safety evaluation of the containment building under severe accident condition should be performed. In this study, we assessed the pressure capacity of Wolsong Unit 1 containment building under severe accident, and estimated the responses at all of the probable critical areas. Based on those results, we found the significant failure modes of Wolsong Unit 1 containment building with respect to the severe accident condition. On the other hand, for the aged NPP, the degradation of their structural performance must also be explained in the procedure of the internal pressure capacity evaluation. Therefore, in this study, we performed a parametric study on the degradation effects and evaluated the internal pressure capacity of Wolsong Unit 1 containment building with considering aging and degradation effects

A model to predict moisture conditions in concrete reactor containments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahs, M.; Nilsson, L.O.; Poyet, S.; L'Hostis, V.

2015-01-01

Moisture has an impact in many of the degradation mechanisms that appear in the structures of a nuclear power plant. Moisture conditions in a reactor containment wall have been simulated by using a hygro-thermal model of drying concrete. Methods to estimate the temperature dependency of the sorption isotherms and moisture transport properties is suggested and applied in the model. This temperature dependency is included as there is a temperature gradient present through the containment wall. The hygro-thermal model was applied on a full scale 3D model of a real reactor containment building and the concrete relative humidity has been computed at 4 different moments: 1, 10, 20 and 30 years. The results show that the major part of the concrete is not dried at all even after 30 years of operation. It is also clear that the temperature distribution inside the whole concrete volume is affected by the variable boundary conditions. It was concluded that the suggested hygro-thermal model was appropriate to use as a method to estimate the existing conditions in a PWR reactor containment wall

A Heat Dynamic Model for Intelligent Heating of Buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thavlov, Anders; Bindner, Henrik W.

2015-01-01

This article presents a heat dynamic model for prediction of the indoor temperature in an office building. The model has been used in several flexible load applications, where the indoor temperature is allowed to vary around a given reference to provide power system services by shifting the heating...... of the building in time. This way the thermal mass of the building can be used to absorb energy from renewable energy source when available and postpone heating in periods with lack of renewable energy generation. The model is used in a model predictive controller to ensure the residential comfort over a given...

Modelling Technology for Building Fire Scene with Virtual Geographic Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Y.; Zhao, L.; Wei, M.; Zhang, H.; Liu, W.

2017-09-01

Building fire is a risky activity that can lead to disaster and massive destruction. The management and disposal of building fire has always attracted much interest from researchers. Integrated Virtual Geographic Environment (VGE) is a good choice for building fire safety management and emergency decisions, in which a more real and rich fire process can be computed and obtained dynamically, and the results of fire simulations and analyses can be much more accurate as well. To modelling building fire scene with VGE, the application requirements and modelling objective of building fire scene were analysed in this paper. Then, the four core elements of modelling building fire scene (the building space environment, the fire event, the indoor Fire Extinguishing System (FES) and the indoor crowd) were implemented, and the relationship between the elements was discussed also. Finally, with the theory and framework of VGE, the technology of building fire scene system with VGE was designed within the data environment, the model environment, the expression environment, and the collaborative environment as well. The functions and key techniques in each environment are also analysed, which may provide a reference for further development and other research on VGE.

Automatic Generation of 3D Building Models with Multiple Roofs

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Kenichi Sugihara; Yoshitugu Hayashi

2008-01-01

Based on building footprints (building polygons) on digital maps, we are proposing the GIS and CG integrated system that automatically generates 3D building models with multiple roofs. Most building polygons' edges meet at right angles (orthogonal polygon). The integrated system partitions orthogonal building polygons into a set of rectangles and places rectangular roofs and box-shaped building bodies on these rectangles. In order to partition an orthogonal polygon, we proposed a useful polygon expression in deciding from which vertex a dividing line is drawn. In this paper, we propose a new scheme for partitioning building polygons and show the process of creating 3D roof models.

Energy efficiency index to artificially conditioned buildings; Indice de eficiencia energetica para edificios climatizados artificialmente

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jota, Patricia Romeiro da Silva; Santos, Carla da Silva; Costa, Kelly Luciene C. [Centro Federal de Educacao Tecnologica de Minas Gerais (CEMIG/CEFET), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil). Centro de Pesquisa em Energia Inteligente

2010-07-01

Conditioning buildings has been growing in number and are responsible for a significant portion of the energy used worldwide. The building energy use can be measured by the index of energy performance and specific fuel consumption (EC). The specific consumption is an index where the energy is normalized by the factors that affect energy use in order to obtain an index to explain variations in consumption. In this paper, we present a methodology to obtain a specific consumption that takes into account one of the factors that most affect energy use in these buildings, that is, the external temperature. The study is based on analysis of consumption of air conditioning system according to temperature. Through this analysis we obtain a function to facilitate the standardization of energy use, depending on the temperature outside. This methodology was tested in previous work on real buildings without stratification of energy, and this work will be presented a case study of a building whose energy measurement is stratified. The proposed index is the ratio between the energy consumption of air conditioning system corrected by the temperature through the function K(T). It was possible to demonstrate the efficiency of the index to eliminate the effect of temperature and thus to evaluate the evolution of specific consumption over the months analyzed. (author)

A Unified Building Model for 3D Urban GIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ihab Hijazi

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Several tasks in urban and architectural design are today undertaken in a geospatial context. Building Information Models (BIM and geospatial technologies offer 3D data models that provide information about buildings and the surrounding environment. The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC and CityGML are today the two most prominent semantic models for representation of BIM and geospatial models respectively. CityGML has emerged as a standard for modeling city models while IFC has been developed as a reference model for building objects and sites. Current CAD and geospatial software provide tools that allow the conversion of information from one format to the other. These tools are however fairly limited in their capabilities, often resulting in data and information losses in the transformations. This paper describes a new approach for data integration based on a unified building model (UBM which encapsulates both the CityGML and IFC models, thus avoiding translations between the models and loss of information. To build the UBM, all classes and related concepts were initially collected from both models, overlapping concepts were merged, new objects were created to ensure the capturing of both indoor and outdoor objects, and finally, spatial relationships between the objects were redefined. Unified Modeling Language (UML notations were used for representing its objects and relationships between them. There are two use-case scenarios, both set in a hospital: “evacuation” and “allocating spaces for patient wards” were developed to validate and test the proposed UBM data model. Based on these two scenarios, four validation queries were defined in order to validate the appropriateness of the proposed unified building model. It has been validated, through the case scenarios and four queries, that the UBM being developed is able to integrate CityGML data as well as IFC data in an apparently seamless way. Constraints and enrichment functions are

Alternatives to quintessence model building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Avelino, P.P.; Beca, L.M.G.; Pinto, P.; Carvalho, J.P.M. de; Martins, C.J.A.P.

2003-01-01

We discuss the issue of toy model building for the dark energy component of the universe. Specifically, we consider two generic toy models recently proposed as alternatives to quintessence models, respectively known as Cardassian expansion and the Chaplygin gas. We show that the former is entirely equivalent to a class of quintessence models. We determine the observational constraints on the latter, coming from recent supernovae results and from the shape of the matter power spectrum. As expected, these restrict the model to a behavior that closely matches that of a standard cosmological constant Λ

Impacts of building information modeling on facility maintenance management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ahamed, Shafee; Neelamkavil, Joseph; Canas, Roberto [Centre for Computer-assisted Construction Technologies, National Research Council of Canada, London, Ontario (Canada)

2010-07-01

Building information modeling (BIM) is a digital representation of the physical and functional properties of a building; it has been used by construction professionals for a long time and stakeholders are now using it in different aspects of the building lifecycle. This paper intends to present how BIM impacts the construction industry and how it can be used for facility maintenance management. The maintenance and operations of buildings are in most cases still managed through the use of drawings and spreadsheets although life cycle costs of a building are significantly higher than initial investment costs; thus, the use of BIM could help in achieving a higher efficiency and so important benefits. This study is part of an ongoing research project, the nD modeling project, which aims at predicting building energy consumption with better accuracy.

Updating of a dynamic finite element model from the Hualien scale model reactor building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Billet, L.; Moine, P.; Lebailly, P.

1996-08-01

The forces occurring at the soil-structure interface of a building have generally a large influence on the way the building reacts to an earthquake. One can be tempted to characterise these forces more accurately bu updating a model from the structure. However, this procedure requires an updating method suitable for dissipative models, since significant damping can be observed at the soil-structure interface of buildings. Such a method is presented here. It is based on the minimization of a mechanical energy built from the difference between Eigen data calculated bu the model and Eigen data issued from experimental tests on the real structure. An experimental validation of this method is then proposed on a model from the HUALIEN scale-model reactor building. This scale-model, built on the HUALIEN site of TAIWAN, is devoted to the study of soil-structure interaction. The updating concerned the soil impedances, modelled by a layer of springs and viscous dampers attached to the building foundation. A good agreement was found between the Eigen modes and dynamic responses calculated bu the updated model and the corresponding experimental data. (authors). 12 refs., 3 figs., 4 tabs

Empirical Model Building Data, Models, and Reality

CERN Document Server

Thompson, James R

2011-01-01

Praise for the First Edition "This...novel and highly stimulating book, which emphasizes solving real problems...should be widely read. It will have a positive and lasting effect on the teaching of modeling and statistics in general." - Short Book Reviews This new edition features developments and real-world examples that showcase essential empirical modeling techniques Successful empirical model building is founded on the relationship between data and approximate representations of the real systems that generated that data. As a result, it is essential for researchers who construct these m

A fuzzy-based model to implement the global safety buildings index assessment for agri-food buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco Barreca

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The latest EU policies focus on the issue of food safety with a view to ensuring adequate and standard quality levels for the food produced and/or consumed within the EC. To that purpose, the environment where agricultural products are manufactured and processed plays a crucial role in achieving food hygiene. As a consequence, it is of the outmost importance to adopt proper building solutions which meet health and hygiene requirements as well as to use suitable tools to measure the levels achieved. Similarly, it is necessary to verify and evaluate the level of workers’ safety and welfare in their working environment. Workers’ safety has not only an ethical and social value but also an economic implication, since possible accidents or environmental stressors are the major causes of the lower efficiency and productivity of workers. Therefore, it is fundamental to design suitable models of analysis that allow assessing buildings as a whole, taking into account both health and hygiene safety as well as workers’ safety and welfare. Hence, this paper proposes an assessment model that, based on an established study protocol and on the application of a fuzzy logic procedure, allows assessing the global safety level of an agri-food building by means of a global safety buildings index. The model here presented is original since it uses fuzzy logic to evaluate the performances of both the technical and environmental systems of an agri-food building in terms of health and hygiene safety of the manufacturing process as well as of workers’ health and safety. The result of the assessment is expressed through a triangular fuzzy membership function which allows carrying out comparative analyses of different buildings. A specific procedure was developed to apply the model to a case study which tested its operational simplicity and the validity of its results. The proposed model allows obtaining a synthetic and global value of the building performance of

Energy efficient hybrid nanocomposite-based cool thermal storage air conditioning system for sustainable buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parameshwaran, R.; Kalaiselvam, S.

2013-01-01

The quest towards energy conservative building design is increasingly popular in recent years, which has triggered greater interests in developing energy efficient systems for space cooling in buildings. In this work, energy efficient silver–titania HiTES (hybrid nanocomposites-based cool thermal energy storage) system combined with building A/C (air conditioning) system was experimentally investigated for summer and winter design conditions. HiNPCM (hybrid nanocomposite particles embedded PCM) used as the heat storage material has exhibited 7.3–58.4% of improved thermal conductivity than at its purest state. The complete freezing time for HiNPCM was reduced by 15% which was attributed to its improved thermophysical characteristics. Experimental results suggest that the effective energy redistribution capability of HiTES system has contributed for reduction in the chiller nominal cooling capacity by 46.3% and 39.6% respectively, under part load and on-peak load operating conditions. The HiTES A/C system achieved 27.3% and 32.5% of on-peak energy savings potential in summer and winter respectively compared to the conventional A/C system. For the same operating conditions, this system yield 8.3%, 12.2% and 7.2% and 10.2% of per day average and yearly energy conservation respectively. This system can be applied for year-round space conditioning application without sacrificing energy efficiency in buildings. - Highlights: • Energy storage is acquired by HiTES (hybrid nanocomposites-thermal storage) system. • Thermal conductivity of HiNPCM (hybrid nanocomposites-PCM) was improved by 58.4%. • Freezing time of HiNPCM was reduced by 15% that enabled improved energy efficiency. • Chiller nominal capacity was reduced by 46.3% and 39.6% in on-peak and part load respectively. • HiTES A/C system achieved appreciable energy savings in the range of 8.3–12.2%

Performance advancement of solar air-conditioning through integrated system design for building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fong, K.F.; Lee, C.K.

2014-01-01

This study is to advance the energy performance of solar air-conditioning system through appropriate component integration from the absorption refrigeration cycle and proper high-temperature cooling. In the previous studies, the solar absorption air-conditioning using the working pair of water – lithium bromide (H 2 O–LiBr) is found to have prominent primary energy saving than the conventional compression air-conditioning for buildings in the hot-humid climate. In this study, three integration strategies have been generated for solar cooling, namely integrated absorption air-conditioning; integrated absorption-desiccant air-conditioning; and integrated absorption-desiccant air-conditioning for radiant cooling. To realize these ideas, the working pair of ammonia – water (NH 3 –H 2 O) was used in the absorption cycle, rather than H 2 O–LiBr. As such, the evaporator and the condenser can be separate from the absorption refrigeration cycle for the new configuration of various integrated design alternatives. Through dynamic simulation, the year-round primary energy saving of the proposed integration strategies for solar NH 3 –H 2 O absorption air-conditioning systems could be up to 50.6% and 25.5%, as compared to the conventional compression air-conditioning and the basic solar H 2 O–LiBr absorption air-conditioning respectively. Consequently, carbon reduction of building air-conditioning can be achieved more effectively through the integrated system design in the hot and humid cities. - Highlights: • Three integration strategies, IAAU, IADAU and IADAU-RC, are proposed to advance solar air-conditioning. • NH 3 –H 2 O is adopted for absorption refrigeration instead of H 2 O–LiBr. • Separate evaporator and condenser, desiccant cooling and radiant cooling are designed for IADAU-RC. • IADAU-RC can have 50.6% primary energy saving against the conventional air-conditioning

Exploitation of Semantic Building Model in Indoor Navigation Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Anjomshoaa, A.; Shayeganfar, F.; Tjoa, A. Min

2009-04-01

There are many types of indoor and outdoor navigation tools and methodologies available. A majority of these solutions are based on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and instant video and image processing. These approaches are ideal for open world environments where very few information about the target location is available, but for large scale building environments such as hospitals, governmental offices, etc the end-user will need more detailed information about the surrounding context which is especially important in case of people with special needs. This paper presents a smart indoor navigation solution that is based on Semantic Web technologies and Building Information Model (BIM). The proposed solution is also aligned with Google Android's concepts to enlighten the realization of results. Keywords: IAI IFCXML, Building Information Model, Indoor Navigation, Semantic Web, Google Android, People with Special Needs 1 Introduction Built environment is a central factor in our daily life and a big portion of human life is spent inside buildings. Traditionally the buildings are documented using building maps and plans by utilization of IT tools such as computer-aided design (CAD) applications. Documenting the maps in an electronic way is already pervasive but CAD drawings do not suffice the requirements regarding effective building models that can be shared with other building-related applications such as indoor navigation systems. The navigation in built environment is not a new issue, however with the advances in emerging technologies like GPS, mobile and networked environments, and Semantic Web new solutions have been suggested to enrich the traditional building maps and convert them to smart information resources that can be reused in other applications and improve the interpretability with building inhabitants and building visitors. Other important issues that should be addressed in building navigation scenarios are location tagging and end-user communication

IMPROVING TRADITIONAL BUILDING REPAIR CONSTRUCTION QUALITY USING HISTORIC BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING CONCEPT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. C. Wu

2013-07-01

Full Text Available In addition to the repair construction project following the repair principles contemplated by heritage experts, the construction process should be recorded and measured at any time for monitoring to ensure the quality of repair. The conventional construction record methods mostly depend on the localized shooting of 2D digital images coupled with text and table for illustration to achieve the purpose of monitoring. Such methods cannot fully and comprehensively record the 3D spatial relationships in the real world. Therefore, the construction records of traditional buildings are very important but cannot function due to technical limitations. This study applied the 3D laser scanning technology to establish a 3D point cloud model for the repair construction of historical buildings. It also broke down the detailed components of the 3D point cloud model by using the concept of the historic building information modeling, and established the 3D models of various components and their attribute data in the 3DGIS platform database. In the construction process, according to the time of completion of each stage as developed on the construction project, this study conducted the 3D laser scanning and database establishment for each stage, also applied 3DGIS spatial information and attribute information comparison and analysis to propose the analysis of differences in completion of various stages for improving the traditional building repair construction quality. This method helps to improve the quality of repair construction work of tangible cultural assets of the world. The established 3DGIS platform can be used as a power tool for subsequent management and maintenance.

Modelling energy demand in the Norwegian building stock

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sartori, Igor

2008-07-15

Energy demand in the building stock in Norway represents about 40% of the final energy consumption, of which 22% goes to the residential sector and 18% to the service sector. In Norway there is a strong dependency on electricity for heating purposes, with electricity covering about 80% of the energy demand in buildings. The building sector can play an important role in the achievement of a more sustainable energy system. The work performed in the articles presented in this thesis investigates various aspects related to the energy demand in the building sector, both in singular cases and in the stock as a whole. The work performed in the first part of this thesis on development and survey of case studies provided background knowledge that was then used in the second part, on modelling the entire stock. In the first part, a literature survey of case studies showed that, in a life cycle perspective, the energy used in the operating phase of buildings is the single most important factor. Design of low-energy buildings is then beneficial and should be pursued, even though it implies a somewhat higher embodied energy. A case study was performed on a school building. First, a methodology using a Monte Carlo method in the calibration process was explored. Then, the calibrated model of the school was used to investigate measures for the achievement of high energy efficiency standard through renovation work. In the second part, a model was developed to study the energy demand in a scenario analysis. The results showed the robustness of policies that included conservation measures against the conflicting effects of the other policies. Adopting conservation measures on a large scale showed the potential to reduce both electricity and total energy demand from present day levels while the building stock keeps growing. The results also highlighted the inertia to change of the building stock, due to low activity levels compared to the stock size. It also became clear that a deeper

The Creation of Space Vector Models of Buildings From RPAS Photogrammetry Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Trhan Ondrej

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The results of Remote Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS photogrammetry are digital surface models and orthophotos. The main problem of the digital surface models obtained is that buildings are not perpendicular and the shape of roofs is deformed. The task of this paper is to obtain a more accurate digital surface model using building reconstructions. The paper discusses the problem of obtaining and approximating building footprints, reconstructing the final spatial vector digital building model, and modifying the buildings on the digital surface model.

Toward a General Research Process for Using Dubin's Theory Building Model

Science.gov (United States)

Holton, Elwood F.; Lowe, Janis S.

2007-01-01

Dubin developed a widely used methodology for theory building, which describes the components of the theory building process. Unfortunately, he does not define a research process for implementing his theory building model. This article proposes a seven-step general research process for implementing Dubin's theory building model. An example of a…

Features of Functioning the Integrated Building Thermal Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Morozov Maxim N.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available A model of the building heating system, consisting of energy source, a distributed automatic control system, elements of individual heating unit and heating system is designed. Application Simulink of mathematical package Matlab is selected as a platform for the model. There are the specialized application Simscape libraries in aggregate with a wide range of Matlab mathematical tools allow to apply the “acausal” modeling concept. Implementation the “physical” representation of the object model gave improving the accuracy of the models. Principle of operation and features of the functioning of the thermal model is described. The investigations of building cooling dynamics were carried out.

A One-Dimensional Particle-in-Cell Model of Plasma Build-Up in Vacuum Arcs

CERN Document Server

Timko, H; Kovermann, J; Taborelli, M; Nordlund, K; Descoeudres, A; Schneider, R; Calatroni, S; Matyash, K; Wuensch, W; Hansen, A; Grudiev, A

2011-01-01

Understanding the mechanism of plasma build-up in vacuum arcs is essential in many fields of physics. A one-dimensional particle-in-cell computer simulation model is presented, which models the plasma developing from a field emitter tip under electrical breakdown conditions, taking into account the relevant physical phenomena. As a starting point, only an external electric field and an initial enhancement factor of the tip are assumed. General requirements for plasma formation have been identified and formulated in terms of the initial local field and a critical neutral density. The dependence of plasma build-up on tip melting current, the evaporation rate of neutrals and external circuit time constant has been investigated for copper and simulations imply that arcing involves melting currents around 0.5-1 A/mu m(2),evaporation of neutrals to electron field emission ratios in the regime 0.01 - 0.05, plasma build-up timescales in the order of similar to 1 - 10 ns and two different regimes depending on initial ...

A Novel Distributed Economic Model Predictive Control Approach for Building Air-Conditioning Systems in Microgrids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xinan Zhang

2018-04-01

Full Text Available With the penetration of grid-connected renewable energy generation, microgrids are facing stability and power quality problems caused by renewable intermittency. To alleviate such problems, demand side management (DSM of responsive loads, such as building air-conditioning system (BACS, has been proposed and studied. In recent years, numerous control approaches have been published for proper management of single BACS. The majority of these approaches focus on either the control of BACS for attenuating power fluctuations in the grid or the operating cost minimization on behalf of the residents. These two control objectives are paramount for BACS control in microgrids and can be conflicting. As such, they should be considered together in control design. As individual buildings may have different owners/residents, it is natural to control different BACSs in an autonomous and self-interested manner to minimize the operational costs for the owners/residents. Unfortunately, such “selfish” operation can result in abrupt and large power fluctuations at the point of common coupling (PCC of the microgrid due to lack of coordination. Consequently, the original objective of mitigating power fluctuations generated by renewable intermittency cannot be achieved. To minimize the operating costs of individual BACSs and simultaneously ensure desirable overall power flow at PCC, this paper proposes a novel distributed control framework based on the dissipativity theory. The proposed method achieves the objective of renewable intermittency mitigation through proper coordination of distributed BACS controllers and is scalable and computationally efficient. Simulation studies are carried out to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed control framework.

Investigation Into Informational Compatibility Of Building Information Modelling And Building Performance Analysis Software Solutions

OpenAIRE

Hyun, S.; Marjanovic-Halburd, L.; Raslan, R.

2015-01-01

There are significant opportunities for Building Information Modelling (BIM) to address issues related to sustainable and energy efficient building design. While the potential benefits associated with the integration of BIM and BPA (Building Performance Analysis) have been recognised, its specifications and formats remain in their early infancy and often fail to live up to the promise of seamless interoperability at various stages of design process. This paper conducts a case study to investi...

Automatic 3d Building Model Generations with Airborne LiDAR Data

Science.gov (United States)

Yastikli, N.; Cetin, Z.

2017-11-01

LiDAR systems become more and more popular because of the potential use for obtaining the point clouds of vegetation and man-made objects on the earth surface in an accurate and quick way. Nowadays, these airborne systems have been frequently used in wide range of applications such as DEM/DSM generation, topographic mapping, object extraction, vegetation mapping, 3 dimensional (3D) modelling and simulation, change detection, engineering works, revision of maps, coastal management and bathymetry. The 3D building model generation is the one of the most prominent applications of LiDAR system, which has the major importance for urban planning, illegal construction monitoring, 3D city modelling, environmental simulation, tourism, security, telecommunication and mobile navigation etc. The manual or semi-automatic 3D building model generation is costly and very time-consuming process for these applications. Thus, an approach for automatic 3D building model generation is needed in a simple and quick way for many studies which includes building modelling. In this study, automatic 3D building models generation is aimed with airborne LiDAR data. An approach is proposed for automatic 3D building models generation including the automatic point based classification of raw LiDAR point cloud. The proposed point based classification includes the hierarchical rules, for the automatic production of 3D building models. The detailed analyses for the parameters which used in hierarchical rules have been performed to improve classification results using different test areas identified in the study area. The proposed approach have been tested in the study area which has partly open areas, forest areas and many types of the buildings, in Zekeriyakoy, Istanbul using the TerraScan module of TerraSolid. The 3D building model was generated automatically using the results of the automatic point based classification. The obtained results of this research on study area verified that automatic 3D

AUTOMATIC 3D BUILDING MODEL GENERATIONS WITH AIRBORNE LiDAR DATA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Yastikli

2017-11-01

Full Text Available LiDAR systems become more and more popular because of the potential use for obtaining the point clouds of vegetation and man-made objects on the earth surface in an accurate and quick way. Nowadays, these airborne systems have been frequently used in wide range of applications such as DEM/DSM generation, topographic mapping, object extraction, vegetation mapping, 3 dimensional (3D modelling and simulation, change detection, engineering works, revision of maps, coastal management and bathymetry. The 3D building model generation is the one of the most prominent applications of LiDAR system, which has the major importance for urban planning, illegal construction monitoring, 3D city modelling, environmental simulation, tourism, security, telecommunication and mobile navigation etc. The manual or semi-automatic 3D building model generation is costly and very time-consuming process for these applications. Thus, an approach for automatic 3D building model generation is needed in a simple and quick way for many studies which includes building modelling. In this study, automatic 3D building models generation is aimed with airborne LiDAR data. An approach is proposed for automatic 3D building models generation including the automatic point based classification of raw LiDAR point cloud. The proposed point based classification includes the hierarchical rules, for the automatic production of 3D building models. The detailed analyses for the parameters which used in hierarchical rules have been performed to improve classification results using different test areas identified in the study area. The proposed approach have been tested in the study area which has partly open areas, forest areas and many types of the buildings, in Zekeriyakoy, Istanbul using the TerraScan module of TerraSolid. The 3D building model was generated automatically using the results of the automatic point based classification. The obtained results of this research on study area verified

Progress in D-brane model building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marchesano, F.

2007-01-01

The state of the art in D-brane model building is briefly reviewed, focusing on recent achievements in the construction of D=4 N=1 type II string vacua with semi-realistic gauge sectors. Such progress relies on a better understanding of the spectrum of BPS D-branes, the effective field theory obtained from them and the explicit construction of vacua. We first consider D-branes in standard Calabi-Yau compactifications, and then the more involved case of compactifications with fluxes. We discuss how the non-trivial interplay between D-branes and fluxes modifies the previous model-building rules, as well as provides new possibilities to connect string theory to particle physics. (Abstract Copyright [2007], Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Relevance feature selection of modal frequency-ambient condition pattern recognition in structural health assessment for reinforced concrete buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

He-Qing Mu

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Modal frequency is an important indicator for structural health assessment. Previous studies have shown that this indicator is substantially affected by the fluctuation of ambient conditions, such as temperature and humidity. Therefore, recognizing the pattern between modal frequency and ambient conditions is necessary for reliable long-term structural health assessment. In this article, a novel machine-learning algorithm is proposed to automatically select relevance features in modal frequency-ambient condition pattern recognition based on structural dynamic response and ambient condition measurement. In contrast to the traditional feature selection approaches by examining a large number of combinations of extracted features, the proposed algorithm conducts continuous relevance feature selection by introducing a sophisticated hyperparameterization on the weight parameter vector controlling the relevancy of different features in the prediction model. The proposed algorithm is then utilized for structural health assessment for a reinforced concrete building based on 1-year daily measurements. It turns out that the optimal model class including the relevance features for each vibrational mode is capable to capture the pattern between the corresponding modal frequency and the ambient conditions.

Energy based prediction models for building acoustics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brunskog, Jonas

2012-01-01

In order to reach robust and simplified yet accurate prediction models, energy based principle are commonly used in many fields of acoustics, especially in building acoustics. This includes simple energy flow models, the framework of statistical energy analysis (SEA) as well as more elaborated...... principles as, e.g., wave intensity analysis (WIA). The European standards for building acoustic predictions, the EN 12354 series, are based on energy flow and SEA principles. In the present paper, different energy based prediction models are discussed and critically reviewed. Special attention is placed...... on underlying basic assumptions, such as diffuse fields, high modal overlap, resonant field being dominant, etc., and the consequences of these in terms of limitations in the theory and in the practical use of the models....

A Team Building Model for Software Engineering Courses Term Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Sahin, Yasar Guneri

2011-01-01

This paper proposes a new model for team building, which enables teachers to build coherent teams rapidly and fairly for the term projects of software engineering courses. Moreover, the model can also be used to build teams for any type of project, if the team member candidates are students, or if they are inexperienced on a certain subject. The…

Near-Source Modeling Updates: Building Downwash & Near-Road

Science.gov (United States)

The presentation describes recent research efforts in near-source model development focusing on building downwash and near-road barriers. The building downwash section summarizes a recent wind tunnel study, ongoing computational fluid dynamics simulations and efforts to improve ...

Building Information Modelling in Denmark and Iceland

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Per Anker; Jóhannesson, Elvar Ingi

2013-01-01

with BIM is studied. Based on findings from both parts, ideas and recommendations are put forward for the Icelandic building industry about feasible ways of implementing BIM. Findings – Among the results are that the use of BIM is very limited in the Icelandic companies compared to the other Nordic...... for making standards and guidelines related to BIM. Public building clients are also encouraged to consider initiating projects based on making simple building models of existing buildings in order to introduce the BIM technology to the industry. Icelandic companies are recommended to start implementing BIM...... countries. Research limitations/implications – The research is limited to the Nordic countries in Europe, but many recommendations could be relevant to other countries. Practical implications – It is recommended to the Icelandic building authorities to get into cooperation with their Nordic counterparts...

Current State of the Art Historic Building Information Modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Dore, C.; Murphy, M.

2017-08-01

In an extensive review of existing literature a number of observations were made in relation to the current approaches for recording and modelling existing buildings and environments: Data collection and pre-processing techniques are becoming increasingly automated to allow for near real-time data capture and fast processing of this data for later modelling applications. Current BIM software is almost completely focused on new buildings and has very limited tools and pre-defined libraries for modelling existing and historic buildings. The development of reusable parametric library objects for existing and historic buildings supports modelling with high levels of detail while decreasing the modelling time. Mapping these parametric objects to survey data, however, is still a time-consuming task that requires further research. Promising developments have been made towards automatic object recognition and feature extraction from point clouds for as-built BIM. However, results are currently limited to simple and planar features. Further work is required for automatic accurate and reliable reconstruction of complex geometries from point cloud data. Procedural modelling can provide an automated solution for generating 3D geometries but lacks the detail and accuracy required for most as-built applications in AEC and heritage fields.

'Semi-realistic'F-term inflation model building in supergravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kain, Ben

2008-01-01

We describe methods for building 'semi-realistic' models of F-term inflation. By semi-realistic we mean that they are built in, and obey the requirements of, 'semi-realistic' particle physics models. The particle physics models are taken to be effective supergravity theories derived from orbifold compactifications of string theory, and their requirements are taken to be modular invariance, absence of mass terms and stabilization of moduli. We review the particle physics models, their requirements and tools and methods for building inflation models

Flood vulnerability assessment of residential buildings by explicit damage process modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Custer, Rocco; Nishijima, Kazuyoshi

2015-01-01

The present paper introduces a vulnerability modelling approach for residential buildings in flood. The modelling approach explicitly considers relevant damage processes, i.e. water infiltration into the building, mechanical failure of components in the building envelope and damage from water...

Robust Building Energy Load Forecasting Using Physically-Based Kernel Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anand Krishnan Prakash

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Robust and accurate building energy load forecasting is important for helping building managers and utilities to plan, budget, and strategize energy resources in advance. With recent prevalent adoption of smart-meters in buildings, a significant amount of building energy consumption data became available. Many studies have developed physics-based white box models and data-driven black box models to predict building energy consumption; however, they require extensive prior knowledge about building system, need a large set of training data, or lack robustness to different forecasting scenarios. In this paper, we introduce a new building energy forecasting method based on Gaussian Process Regression (GPR that incorporates physical insights about load data characteristics to improve accuracy while reducing training requirements. The GPR is a non-parametric regression method that models the data as a joint Gaussian distribution with mean and covariance functions and forecast using the Bayesian updating. We model the covariance function of the GPR to reflect the data patterns in different forecasting horizon scenarios, as prior knowledge. Our method takes advantage of the modeling flexibility and computational efficiency of the GPR while benefiting from the physical insights to further improve the training efficiency and accuracy. We evaluate our method with three field datasets from two university campuses (Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University for both short- and long-term load forecasting. The results show that our method performs more accurately, especially when the training dataset is small, compared to other state-of-the-art forecasting models (up to 2.95 times smaller prediction error.

Building Information Model: advantages, tools and adoption efficiency

Science.gov (United States)

Abakumov, R. G.; Naumov, A. E.

2018-03-01

The paper expands definition and essence of Building Information Modeling. It describes content and effects from application of Information Modeling at different stages of a real property item. Analysis of long-term and short-term advantages is given. The authors included an analytical review of Revit software package in comparison with Autodesk with respect to: features, advantages and disadvantages, cost and pay cutoff. A prognostic calculation is given for efficiency of adoption of the Building Information Modeling technology, with examples of its successful adoption in Russia and worldwide.

TLS for generating multi-LOD of 3D building model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akmalia, R; Setan, H; Majid, Z; Suwardhi, D; Chong, A

2014-01-01

The popularity of Terrestrial Laser Scanners (TLS) to capture three dimensional (3D) objects has been used widely for various applications. Development in 3D models has also led people to visualize the environment in 3D. Visualization of objects in a city environment in 3D can be useful for many applications. However, different applications require different kind of 3D models. Since a building is an important object, CityGML has defined a standard for 3D building models at four different levels of detail (LOD). In this research, the advantages of TLS for capturing buildings and the modelling process of the point cloud can be explored. TLS will be used to capture all the building details to generate multi-LOD. This task, in previous works, involves usually the integration of several sensors. However, in this research, point cloud from TLS will be processed to generate the LOD3 model. LOD2 and LOD1 will then be generalized from the resulting LOD3 model. Result from this research is a guiding process to generate the multi-LOD of 3D building starting from LOD3 using TLS. Lastly, the visualization for multi-LOD model will also be shown

TLS for generating multi-LOD of 3D building model

Science.gov (United States)

Akmalia, R.; Setan, H.; Majid, Z.; Suwardhi, D.; Chong, A.

2014-02-01

The popularity of Terrestrial Laser Scanners (TLS) to capture three dimensional (3D) objects has been used widely for various applications. Development in 3D models has also led people to visualize the environment in 3D. Visualization of objects in a city environment in 3D can be useful for many applications. However, different applications require different kind of 3D models. Since a building is an important object, CityGML has defined a standard for 3D building models at four different levels of detail (LOD). In this research, the advantages of TLS for capturing buildings and the modelling process of the point cloud can be explored. TLS will be used to capture all the building details to generate multi-LOD. This task, in previous works, involves usually the integration of several sensors. However, in this research, point cloud from TLS will be processed to generate the LOD3 model. LOD2 and LOD1 will then be generalized from the resulting LOD3 model. Result from this research is a guiding process to generate the multi-LOD of 3D building starting from LOD3 using TLS. Lastly, the visualization for multi-LOD model will also be shown.

State reduced order models for the modelling of the thermal behavior of buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Menezo, Christophe; Bouia, Hassan; Roux, Jean-Jacques; Depecker, Patrick [Institute National de Sciences Appliquees de Lyon, Villeurbanne Cedex, (France). Centre de Thermique de Lyon (CETHIL). Equipe Thermique du Batiment]. E-mail: menezo@insa-cethil-etb.insa-lyon.fr; bouia@insa-cethil-etb.insa-lyon.fr; roux@insa-cethil-etb.insa-lyon.fr; depecker@insa-cethil-etb.insa-lyon.fr

2000-07-01

This work is devoted to the field of building physics and related to the reduction of heat conduction models. The aim is to enlarge the model libraries of heat and mass transfer codes through limiting the considerable dimensions reached by the numerical systems during the modelling process of a multizone building. We show that the balanced realization technique, specifically adapted to the coupling of reduced order models with the other thermal phenomena, turns out to be very efficient. (author)

Activity measurement and effective dose modelling of natural radionuclides in building material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maringer, F.J.; Baumgartner, A.; Rechberger, F.; Seidel, C.; Stietka, M.

2013-01-01

In this paper the assessment of natural radionuclides' activity concentration in building materials, calibration requirements and related indoor exposure dose models is presented. Particular attention is turned to specific improvements in low-level gamma-ray spectrometry to determine the activity concentration of necessary natural radionuclides in building materials with adequate measurement uncertainties. Different approaches for the modelling of the effective dose indoor due to external radiation resulted from natural radionuclides in building material and results of actual building material assessments are shown. - Highlights: • Dose models for indoor radiation exposure due to natural radionuclides in building materials. • Strategies and methods in radionuclide metrology, activity measurement and dose modelling. • Selection of appropriate parameters in radiation protection standards for building materials. • Scientific-based limitations of indoor exposure due to natural radionuclides in building materials

BIM, GIS and semantic models of cultural heritage buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pavel Tobiáš

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Even though there has been a great development of using building information models in the AEC (Architecture/Engineering/Construction sector recently, creation of models of existing buildings is still not very usual. The cultural heritage documentation is still, in most cases, kept in the form of 2D drawings while these drawings mostly contain only geometry without semantics, attributes or definitions of relationships and hierarchies between particular building elements. All these additional information would, however, be very providential for the tasks of cultural heritage preservation, i.e. for the facility management of heritage buildings or for reconstruction planning and it would be suitable to manage all geometric and non-geometric information in a single 3D information model. This paper is based on the existing literature and focuses on the historic building information modelling to provide information about the current state of the art. First, a summary of available software tools is introduced while not only the BIM tools but also the related GIS software is considered. This is followed by a review of existing efforts worldwide and an evaluation of the facts found.

Estimating Fallout Building Attributes from Architectural Features and Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Building Descriptions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dillon, Michael B. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Kane, Staci R. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2017-03-01

A nuclear explosion has the potential to injure or kill tens to hundreds of thousands (or more) of people through exposure to fallout (external gamma) radiation. Existing buildings can protect their occupants (reducing fallout radiation exposures) by placing material and distance between fallout particles and individuals indoors. Prior efforts have determined an initial set of building attributes suitable to reasonably assess a given building’s protection against fallout radiation. The current work provides methods to determine the quantitative values for these attributes from (a) common architectural features and data and (b) buildings described using the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) taxonomy. These methods will be used to improve estimates of fallout protection for operational US Department of Defense (DoD) and US Department of Energy (DOE) consequence assessment models.

Analytical Model of Underground Train Induced Vibrations on Nearby Building Structures in Cameroon: Assessment and Prediction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lezin Seba MINSILI

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this research paper was to assess and predict the effect of vibrations induced by an underground railway on nearby-existing buildings prior to the construction of projected new railway lines of the National Railway Master Plan of Cameroon and after upgrading of the railway conceded to CAMRAIL linking the two most densely populated cities of Cameroon: Douala and Yaoundé. With the source-transmitter-receiver mathematical model as the train-soil-structure interaction model, taking into account sub-model parameters such as type of the train-railway system, typical geotechnical conditions of the ground and the sensitivity of the nearby buildings, the analysis is carried out over the entire system using the dynamic finite element method in the time domain. This subdivision of the model is a powerful tool that allows to consider different alternatives of sub-models with different characteristics, and thus to determine any critical excessive vibration impact. Based on semi-empirical analytical results obtained from presented models, the present work assesses and predicts characteristics of traffic-induced vibrations as a function of time duration, intensity and vehicle speed, as well as their influence on buildings at different levels.

Study on vertical seismic response model of BWR-type reactor building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konno, T.; Motohashi, S.; Izumi, M.; Iizuka, S.

1993-01-01

A study on advanced seismic design for LWR has been carried out by the Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation (NUPEC), under the sponsorship of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) of Japan. As a part of the study, it has been investigated to construct an accurate analytical model of reactor buildings for a seismic response analysis, which can reasonably represent dynamic characteristics of the building. In Japan, vibration models of reactor buildings for horizontal ground motion have been studied and examined through many simulation analyses for forced vibration tests and earthquake observations of actual buildings. And now it is possible to establish a reliable horizontal vibration model on the basis of multi-lumped mass and spring model. However, vertical vibration models have not been so much studied as horizontal models, due to less observed data for vertical motions. In this paper, the vertical seismic response models of a BWR-type reactor building including soil-structure interaction effect are numerically studied, by comparing the dynamic characteristics of (1) three dimensional finite element model, (2) multi-stick lumped mass model with a flexible base-mat, (3) multi-stick lumped mass model with a rigid base-mat and (4) single-stick lumped mass model. In particular, the BWR-type reactor building has the long span truss roof which is considered to be one of the critical members to vertical excitation. The modelings of the roof trusses are also studied

Use of MCAM in creating 3D neutronics model for ITER building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeng Qin; Wang Guozhong; Dang Tongqiang; Long Pengcheng; Loughlin, Michael

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► We created a 3D neutronics model of the ITER building. ► The model was produced from the engineering CAD model by MCAM software. ► The neutron flux map in the ITER building was calculated. - Abstract: The three dimensional (3D) neutronics reference model of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) only defines the tokamak machine and extends to the bio-shield. In order to meet further 3D neutronics analysis needs, it is necessary to create a 3D reference model of the ITER building. Monte Carlo Automatic Modeling Program for Radiation Transport Simulation (MCAM) was developed as a computer aided design (CAD) based bi-directional interface program between general CAD systems and Monte Carlo radiation transport simulation codes. With the help of MCAM version 4.8, the 3D neutronics model of ITER building was created based on the engineering CAD model. The calculation of the neutron flux map in ITER building during operation showed the correctness and usability of the model. This model is the first detailed ITER building 3D neutronics model and it will be made available to all international organization collaborators as a reference model.

Reduced order modeling and parameter identification of a building energy system model through an optimization routine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harish, V.S.K.V.; Kumar, Arun

2016-01-01

Highlights: • A BES model based on 1st principles is developed and solved numerically. • Parameters of lumped capacitance model are fitted using the proposed optimization routine. • Validations are showed for different types of building construction elements. • Step response excitations for outdoor air temperature and relative humidity are analyzed. - Abstract: Different control techniques together with intelligent building technology (Building Automation Systems) are used to improve energy efficiency of buildings. In almost all control projects, it is crucial to have building energy models with high computational efficiency in order to design and tune the controllers and simulate their performance. In this paper, a set of partial differential equations are formulated accounting for energy flow within the building space. These equations are then solved as conventional finite difference equations using Crank–Nicholson scheme. Such a model of a higher order is regarded as a benchmark model. An optimization algorithm has been developed, depicted through a flowchart, which minimizes the sum squared error between the step responses of the numerical and the optimal model. Optimal model of the construction element is nothing but a RC-network model with the values of Rs and Cs estimated using the non-linear time invariant constrained optimization routine. The model is validated with comparing the step responses with other two RC-network models whose parameter values are selected based on a certain criteria. Validations are showed for different types of building construction elements viz., low, medium and heavy thermal capacity elements. Simulation results show that the optimal model closely follow the step responses of the numerical model as compared to the responses of other two models.

Impact of whole-building hygrothermal modelling on the assessment of indoor climate in a library building

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steeman, M.; Janssens, A. [Ghent University, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Jozef Plateaustraat 22, B-9000 Gent (Belgium); De Paepe, M. [Ghent University, Department of Flow, Heat and Combustion Mechanics, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Gent (Belgium)

2010-07-15

This paper focuses on the importance of accurately modelling the hygrothermal interaction between the building and its hygroscopic content for the assessment of the indoor climate. Libraries contain a large amount of stored books which require a stable relative humidity to guarantee their preservation. On the other hand, visitors and staff must be comfortable with the indoor climate. The indoor climate of a new library building is evaluated by means of measurements and simulations. Complaints of the staff are confirmed by measured data during the winter and summer of 2007-2008. For the evaluation of the indoor climate, a building simulation model is used in which the porous books are either described by a HAM model or by a simplified isothermal model. Calculations demonstrate that the HAM model predicts a more stable indoor climate regarding both temperature and relative humidity variations in comparison to the estimations by the simplified model. This is attributed to the ability of the HAM model to account for the effect of temperature variations on moisture storage. Moreover, by applying the HAM model, a good agreement with the measured indoor climate is found. As expected, a larger exposed book surface ameliorates the indoor climate because a more stable indoor relative humidity is obtained. Finally, the building simulation model is used to improve the indoor climate with respect to the preservation of valuable books. Results demonstrate that more stringent interventions on the air handling unit are expected when a simplified approach is used to model the hygroscopic books. (author)

Aspects of superstring model-building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ellis, J.

1989-01-01

Several approaches to model-building with strings are discussed, including Calabi-Yau manifolds and fermionic formulations of strings directly in four dimensions. Ideas about supersymmetry breaking are reviewed. Flipped SU(5)xU(1) is touted as the theory of everything below the Planck scale (perhaps). (author). 64 refs, 7 figs

MODELING THE AMBIENT CONDITION EFFECTS OF AN AIR-COOLED NATURAL CIRCULATION SYSTEM

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu, Rui; Lisowski, Darius D.; Bucknor, Matthew; Kraus, Adam R.; Lv, Qiuping

2017-07-02

The Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS) is a passive safety concept under consideration for the overall safety strategy of advanced reactors such as the High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR). One such variant, air-cooled RCCS, uses natural convection to drive the flow of air from outside the reactor building to remove decay heat during normal operation and accident scenarios. The Natural convection Shutdown heat removal Test Facility (NSTF) at Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”) is a half-scale model of the primary features of one conceptual air-cooled RCCS design. The facility was constructed to carry out highly instrumented experiments to study the performance of the RCCS concept for reactor decay heat removal that relies on natural convection cooling. Parallel modeling and simulation efforts were performed to support the design, operation, and analysis of the natural convection system. Throughout the testing program, strong influences of ambient conditions were observed in the experimental data when baseline tests were repeated under the same test procedures. Thus, significant analysis efforts were devoted to gaining a better understanding of these influences and the subsequent response of the NSTF to ambient conditions. It was determined that air humidity had negligible impacts on NSTF system performance and therefore did not warrant consideration in the models. However, temperature differences between the building exterior and interior air, along with the outside wind speed, were shown to be dominant factors. Combining the stack and wind effects together, an empirical model was developed based on theoretical considerations and using experimental data to correlate zero-power system flow rates with ambient meteorological conditions. Some coefficients in the model were obtained based on best fitting the experimental data. The predictive capability of the empirical model was demonstrated by applying it to the new set of experimental data. The

Assigning Robust Default Values in Building Performance Simulation Software for Improved Decision-Making in the Initial Stages of Building Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Hiyama, Kyosuke

2015-01-01

Applying data mining techniques on a database of BIM models could provide valuable insights in key design patterns implicitly present in these BIM models. The architectural designer would then be able to use previous data from existing building projects as default values in building performance simulation software for the early phases of building design. The author has proposed the method to minimize the magnitude of the variation in these default values in subsequent design stages. This approach maintains the accuracy of the simulation results in the initial stages of building design. In this study, a more convincing argument is presented to demonstrate the significance of the new method. The variation in the ideal default values for different building design conditions is assessed first. Next, the influence of each condition on these variations is investigated. The space depth is found to have a large impact on the ideal default value of the window to wall ratio. In addition, the presence or absence of lighting control and natural ventilation has a significant influence on the ideal default value. These effects can be used to identify the types of building conditions that should be considered to determine the ideal default values.

Hygrothermal modelling of flooding events within historic buildings

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huijbregts, Z.; Schellen, H.L.; Schijndel, van A.W.M.; Blades, N.

2014-01-01

Flooding events pose a high risk to valuable monumental buildings and their interiors. Due to higher river discharges and sea level rise, flooding events may occur more often in future. Hygrothermal building simulation models can be applied to investigate the impact of a flooding event on the

Hygrothermal modelling of flooding events within historic buildings

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huijbregts, Z.; Schijndel, van A.W.M.; Schellen, H.L.; Blades, N.; Mahdavi, A.; Mertens, B.

2013-01-01

Flooding events pose a high risk to valuable monumental buildings and their interiors. Due to higher river discharges and sea level rise, flooding events may occur more often in future. Hygrothermal building simulation models can be applied to investigate the impact of a flooding event on the

Building information models for astronomy projects

Science.gov (United States)

Ariño, Javier; Murga, Gaizka; Campo, Ramón; Eletxigerra, Iñigo; Ampuero, Pedro

2012-09-01

A Building Information Model is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a building. BIMs represent the geometrical characteristics of the Building, but also properties like bills of quantities, definition of COTS components, status of material in the different stages of the project, project economic data, etc. The BIM methodology, which is well established in the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) domain for conventional buildings, has been brought one step forward in its application for Astronomical/Scientific facilities. In these facilities steel/concrete structures have high dynamic and seismic requirements, M&E installations are complex and there is a large amount of special equipment and mechanisms involved as a fundamental part of the facility. The detail design definition is typically implemented by different design teams in specialized design software packages. In order to allow the coordinated work of different engineering teams, the overall model, and its associated engineering database, is progressively integrated using a coordination and roaming software which can be used before starting construction phase for checking interferences, planning the construction sequence, studying maintenance operation, reporting to the project office, etc. This integrated design & construction approach will allow to efficiently plan construction sequence (4D). This is a powerful tool to study and analyze in detail alternative construction sequences and ideally coordinate the work of different construction teams. In addition engineering, construction and operational database can be linked to the virtual model (6D), what gives to the end users a invaluable tool for the lifecycle management, as all the facility information can be easily accessed, added or replaced. This paper presents the BIM methodology as implemented by IDOM with the E-ELT and ATST Enclosures as application examples.

Integrating Building Information Modeling and Augmented Reality to Improve Investigation of Historical Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco Chionna

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This paper describes an experimental system to support investigation of historical buildings using Building Information Modeling (BIM and Augmented Reality (AR. The system requires the use of an off-line software to build the BIM representation and defines a method to integrate diagnostic data into BIM. The system offers access to such information during site investigation using AR glasses supported by marker and marker-less technologies. The main innovation is the possibility to contextualize through AR not only existing BIM properties but also results from non-invasive tools. User evaluations show how the use of the system may enhance the perception of engineers during the investigation process.

Risk Factors in Heating, Ventilating, and Air-Conditioning Systemsfor Occupant Symptoms in U.S. Office Buildings: the EPA BASE Study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mendell, M.J.; Lei-Gomez, Q.; Mirer, A.; Seppanen, O.; Brunner, G.

2006-10-01

Nonspecific building-related symptoms among occupants of modern office buildings worldwide are common and may be associated with important reductions in work performance, but their etiology remains uncertain. Characteristics of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems in office buildings that increase risk of indoor contaminants or reduce effectiveness of ventilation may cause adverse exposures and subsequent increase in these symptoms among occupants. We analyzed data collected by the U.S. EPA from a representative sample of 100 large U.S. office buildings--the Building Assessment and Survey Evaluation (BASE) study--using multivariate logistic regression models with generalized estimating equations adjusted for potential personal and building confounders. We estimated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations between seven building-related symptom outcomes and selected HVAC system characteristics. Among factors of HVAC design or configuration: Outdoor air intakes less than 60 m above the ground were associated with approximately doubled odds of most symptoms assessed. Sealed (non-operable) windows were associated with increases in skin and eye symptoms (ORs= 1.9, 1.3, respectively). Outdoor air intake without an intake fan was associated with an increase in eye symptoms (OR=1.7). Local cooling coils were associated with increased headache (OR=1.5). Among factors of HVAC condition, maintenance, or operation: the presence of humidification systems in good condition was associated with an increase in headache (OR=1.4), whereas the presence of humidification systems in poor condition was associated with increases in fatigue/difficulty concentrating, as well as upper respiratory symptoms (ORs=1.8, 1.5). No regularly scheduled inspections for HVAC components was associated with increased eye symptoms, cough and upper respiratory symptoms (ORs=2.2, 1.6, 1.5). Less frequent cleaning of cooling coils or drip pans was associated

Modeling Aggregate Hourly Energy Consumption in a Regional Building Stock

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Kipping

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Sound estimates of future heat and electricity demand with high temporal and spatial resolution are needed for energy system planning, grid design, and evaluating demand-side management options and polices on regional and national levels. In this study, smart meter data on electricity consumption in buildings are combined with cross-sectional building information to model hourly electricity consumption within the household and service sectors on a regional basis in Norway. The same modeling approach is applied to model aggregate hourly district heat consumption in three different consumer groups located in Oslo. A comparison of modeled and metered hourly energy consumption shows that hourly variations and aggregate consumption per county and year are reproduced well by the models. However, for some smaller regions, modeled annual electricity consumption is over- or underestimated by more than 20%. Our results indicate that the presented method is useful for modeling the current and future hourly energy consumption of a regional building stock, but that larger and more detailed training datasets are required to improve the models, and more detailed building stock statistics on regional level are needed to generate useful estimates on aggregate regional energy consumption.

Building trust and diversity in patient-centered oncology clinical trials: An integrated model.

Science.gov (United States)

Hurd, Thelma C; Kaplan, Charles D; Cook, Elise D; Chilton, Janice A; Lytton, Jay S; Hawk, Ernest T; Jones, Lovell A

2017-04-01

Trust is the cornerstone of clinical trial recruitment and retention. Efforts to decrease barriers and increase clinical trial participation among diverse populations have yielded modest results. There is an urgent need to better understand the complex interactions between trust and clinical trial participation. The process of trust-building has been a focus of intense research in the business community. Yet, little has been published about trust in oncology clinical trials or the process of building trust in clinical trials. Both clinical trials and business share common dimensions. Business strategies for building trust may be transferable to the clinical trial setting. This study was conducted to understand and utilize contemporary thinking about building trust to develop an Integrated Model of Trust that incorporates both clinical and business perspectives. A key word-directed literature search of the PubMed, Medline, Cochrane, and Google Search databases for entries dated between 1 January 1985 and 1 September 2015 was conducted to obtain information from which to develop an Integrated Model of Trust. Successful trial participation requires both participants and clinical trial team members to build distinctly different types of interpersonal trust to effect recruitment and retention. They are built under conditions of significant emotional stress and time constraints among people who do not know each other and have never worked together before. Swift Trust and Traditional Trust are sequentially built during the clinical trial process. Swift trust operates during the recruitment and very early active treatment phases of the clinical trial process. Traditional trust is built over time and operates during the active treatment and surveillance stages of clinical trials. The Psychological Contract frames the participants' and clinical trial team members' interpersonal trust relationship. The "terms" of interpersonal trust are negotiated through the psychological

The importance of moisture buffering for indoor climate and energy conditions of buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rode, Carsten; Grau, Karl

2007-01-01

A new Nordic test method specifies a test protocol for determination of the so-called Moisture Buffer Value (MBV) of building materials. But how important is moisture buffering to determine the indoor humidity condition of buildings? The paper will present the new MBV-definition. Although...... buffering to save energy by reducing the requirement for ventilation in periods, and still maintain the same quality of the indoor climate? The paper will outline some possibilities for analytical/numerical calculations, and will answer some of the posed questions on the probable benefit of taking moisture...

Use of MCAM in creating 3D neutronics model for ITER building

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zeng Qin [Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui 230031 (China); School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027 (China); Wang Guozhong, E-mail: mango33@mail.ustc.edu.cn [School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027 (China); Dang Tongqiang [School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027 (China); Long Pengcheng [Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui 230031 (China); School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027 (China); Loughlin, Michael [ITER Organization, Route de Vinon sur Verdon, 13115 St. Paul-Lz-Durance (France)

2012-08-15

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We created a 3D neutronics model of the ITER building. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The model was produced from the engineering CAD model by MCAM software. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The neutron flux map in the ITER building was calculated. - Abstract: The three dimensional (3D) neutronics reference model of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) only defines the tokamak machine and extends to the bio-shield. In order to meet further 3D neutronics analysis needs, it is necessary to create a 3D reference model of the ITER building. Monte Carlo Automatic Modeling Program for Radiation Transport Simulation (MCAM) was developed as a computer aided design (CAD) based bi-directional interface program between general CAD systems and Monte Carlo radiation transport simulation codes. With the help of MCAM version 4.8, the 3D neutronics model of ITER building was created based on the engineering CAD model. The calculation of the neutron flux map in ITER building during operation showed the correctness and usability of the model. This model is the first detailed ITER building 3D neutronics model and it will be made available to all international organization collaborators as a reference model.

The Influence of the Technical Condition of a Building on the Property’s Market Value

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ziembicka Beata

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The housed property’s market value is influenced by a set of characteristic qualities, among which is the technical condition of a building. The aim of this paper is to study the influence of the technical condition of a building on the market price of the dwelling units, depending, among others, on the chosen method and the approach to the assessment of the housing wear degree. The analysis has been performed based on the estimation of the market value of an illustrative dwelling unit located in a building erected with the use of prefabricated large panel technology in selected variants. The study is based on data from the period between January and December 2012, which are related to the sale of rights to dwelling units from the secondary market. The information was obtained from a transactional database based on the Partner Data Exchange system with the Walor software.

Energy modelling and capacity building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

The Planning and Economic Studies Section of the IAEA's Department of Nuclear Energy is focusing on building analytical capacity in MS for energy-environmental-economic assessments and for the elaboration of sustainable energy strategies. It offers a variety of analytical models specifically designed for use in developing countries for (i) evaluating alternative energy strategies; (ii) assessing environmental, economic and financial impacts of energy options; (iii) assessing infrastructure needs; (iv) evaluating regional development possibilities and energy trade; (v) assessing the role of nuclear power in addressing priority issues (climate change, energy security, etc.). These models can be used for analysing energy or electricity systems, and to assess possible implications of different energy, environmental or financial policies that affect the energy sector and energy systems. The models vary in complexity and data requirements, and so can be adapted to the available data, statistics and analytical needs of different countries. These models are constantly updated to reflect changes in the real world and in the concerns that drive energy system choices. They can provide thoughtfully informed choices for policy makers over a broader range of circumstances and interests. For example, they can readily reflect the workings of competitive energy and electricity markets, and cover such topics as external costs. The IAEA further offers training in the use of these models and -just as important- in the interpretation and critical evaluation of results. Training of national teams to develop national competence over the full spectrum of models, is a high priority. The IAEA maintains a broad spectrum of databanks relevant to energy, economic and environmental analysis in MS, and make these data available to analysts in MS for use in their own analytical work. The Reference Technology Data Base (RTDB) and the Reference Data Series (RDS-1) are the major vehicles by which we

DEVELOPING PARAMETRIC BUILDING MODELS – THE GANDIS USE CASE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. Thaller

2012-09-01

Full Text Available In the course of a project related to green building design, we have created a group of eight parametric building models that can be manipulated interactively with respect to dimensions, number of floors, and a few other parameters. We report on the commonalities and differences between the models and the abstractions that we were able to identify.

Daylighting for energy conservation in an existing building under tropical climate conditions: a case study of Lai Sue Thai building Ramkhamhaeng University

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lerdlekha Tanachaikhan

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Daylighting using skylight has been shown to have a high potential in reducing electrical lighting energy, and could provide a more pleasant atmosphere of a daylit space. However, in hot climates, the main constraint of daylighting is the solar heat gain that contributes to major heat load for an air-conditioning system. If the balance between the beneficial light gain used to offset lighting energy requirement and heat gain from daylight is well considered, significant energy savings can be obtained. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the potential of daylighting for energy conservation in the tropics through theoretical analysis (simulation study and experimental observation. Lai Sue Thai Building (an existing and educational building located at Ramkhamkaeng University was selected as a case study. From analysis, use of daylight could reduce electrical energy in this building by up to 76% compared to the initial condition where fully lighting was supplied. Window orientation would also play an important role. Moreover, heat gain through windows due to daylighting can be controlled by overhangs and the appropriate Window-to-Wall ratio that would be about 30% for this building. An experimental study was also carried out to validate the results in a selected room. About 49% and 37% of Relative Root Mean Square Error (RRMSE were observed in light and heat measurements, respectively

Building Component Library: An Online Repository to Facilitate Building Energy Model Creation; Preprint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fleming, K.; Long, N.; Swindler, A.

2012-05-01

This paper describes the Building Component Library (BCL), the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) online repository of building components that can be directly used to create energy models. This comprehensive, searchable library consists of components and measures as well as the metadata which describes them. The library is also designed to allow contributors to easily add new components, providing a continuously growing, standardized list of components for users to draw upon.

Four-dimensional strings: Phenomenology and model building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quiros, M.

1989-01-01

In these lectures we will review some of the last developments in string theories leading to the construction of realistic four-dimensional string models. Special attention will be paid to world-sheet and space-time supersymmetry, modular invariance and model building for supersymmetric and (tachyon-free) nonsupersymmetric ten and four-dimensional models. (orig.)

Modeling hourly consumption of electricity and district heat in non-residential buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kipping, A.; Trømborg, E.

2017-01-01

Models for hourly consumption of heat and electricity in different consumer groups on a regional level can yield important data for energy system planning and management. In this study hourly meter data, combined with cross-sectional data derived from the Norwegian energy label database, is used to model hourly consumption of both district heat and electrical energy in office buildings and schools which either use direct electric heating (DEH) or non-electric hydronic heating (OHH). The results of the study show that modeled hourly total energy consumption in buildings with DEH and in buildings with OHH (supplied by district heat) exhibits differences, e.g. due to differences in heat distribution and control systems. In a normal year, in office buildings with OHH the main part of total modeled energy consumption is used for electric appliances, while in schools with OHH the main part is used for heating. In buildings with OHH the share of modeled annual heating energy is higher than in buildings with DEH. Although based on small samples our regression results indicate that the presented method can be used for modeling hourly energy consumption in non-residential buildings, but also that larger samples and additional cross-sectional information could yield improved models and more reliable results. - Highlights: • Schools with district heating (DH) tend to use less night-setback. • DH in office buildings tends to start earlier than direct electric heating (DEH). • In schools with DH the main part of annual energy consumption is used for heating. • In office buildings with DH the main part is used for electric appliances. • Buildings with DH use a larger share of energy for heating than buildings with DEH.

Collaborative data analytics for smart buildings: opportunities and models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lazarova-Molnar, Sanja; Mohamed, Nader

2018-01-01

of collaborative data analytics for smart buildings, its benefits, as well as presently possible models of carrying it out. Furthermore, we present a framework for collaborative fault detection and diagnosis as a case of collaborative data analytics for smart buildings. We also provide a preliminary analysis...... of the energy efficiency benefit of such collaborative framework for smart buildings. The result shows that significant energy savings can be achieved for smart buildings using collaborative data analytics.......Smart buildings equipped with state-of-the-art sensors and meters are becoming more common. Large quantities of data are being collected by these devices. For a single building to benefit from its own collected data, it will need to wait for a long time to collect sufficient data to build accurate...

A MODEL BUILDING CODE ARTICLE ON FALLOUT SHELTERS WITH RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INCLUSION OF REQUIREMENTS FOR FALLOUT SHELTER CONSTRUCTION IN FOUR NATIONAL MODEL BUILDING CODES.

Science.gov (United States)

American Inst. of Architects, Washington, DC.

A MODEL BUILDING CODE FOR FALLOUT SHELTERS WAS DRAWN UP FOR INCLUSION IN FOUR NATIONAL MODEL BUILDING CODES. DISCUSSION IS GIVEN OF FALLOUT SHELTERS WITH RESPECT TO--(1) NUCLEAR RADIATION, (2) NATIONAL POLICIES, AND (3) COMMUNITY PLANNING. FALLOUT SHELTER REQUIREMENTS FOR SHIELDING, SPACE, VENTILATION, CONSTRUCTION, AND SERVICES SUCH AS ELECTRICAL…

Experimental and modelling analysis of an office building HVAC system based in a ground-coupled heat pump and radiant floor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Villarino, José Ignacio; Villarino, Alberto; Fernández, Francisco Ángel

2017-01-01

Highlights: • A case study of a geothermal heat pump in an office building. • A numerical model in EnergyPlus is validated by experimental results. • An energy, economic and environmental analysis is presented. • A comparison with other technologies demonstrates the potential of the system. - Abstract: This paper shows the evaluation of the performance of a ground-coupled heat pump system monitored building providing heating, ventilating and air conditioning to an office building located in Madrid, in Spain. The system consists of one borehole exchanger, heat pump unit, radiant floor system, mechanical ventilation and data control system. A simulation model was performed with EnergyPlus software and validated. The analyzed period corresponds to the most unfavorable weather conditions in heating and cooling mode. The coefficient of performance obtained in heating and cooling mode was 3.86/5.29, considering all the energy consumption elements of the building and the thermal demand corresponding to an office operation. The CO_2 emissions obtained with a value of 34.68 kg corresponding to the period analyzed represents a low CO_2 emission system. The monitored temperatures reached set point values of 22 °C/25 °C, considered as acceptable comfort temperatures. The values obtained in the validated simulation model presented a deviation of 2% respected experimental results in heating and cooling mode. A comparative of COP_s_y_s and CO_2 emissions with other technologies is performed in order to analyze GCHP compared to other available technologies. The GCHP system is presented as a technology that can fully supply the HVAC conditions for a building and environmentally friendly.

7 CFR Exhibit E to Subpart A of... - Voluntary National Model Building Codes

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 12 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Voluntary National Model Building Codes E Exhibit E... National Model Building Codes The following documents address the health and safety aspects of buildings and related structures and are voluntary national model building codes as defined in § 1924.4(h)(2) of...

A model for the sustainable selection of building envelope assemblies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huedo, Patricia, E-mail: huedo@uji.es [Universitat Jaume I (Spain); Mulet, Elena, E-mail: emulet@uji.es [Universitat Jaume I (Spain); López-Mesa, Belinda, E-mail: belinda@unizar.es [Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain)

2016-02-15

The aim of this article is to define an evaluation model for the environmental impacts of building envelopes to support planners in the early phases of materials selection. The model is intended to estimate environmental impacts for different combinations of building envelope assemblies based on scientifically recognised sustainability indicators. These indicators will increase the amount of information that existing catalogues show to support planners in the selection of building assemblies. To define the model, first the environmental indicators were selected based on the specific aims of the intended sustainability assessment. Then, a simplified LCA methodology was developed to estimate the impacts applicable to three types of dwellings considering different envelope assemblies, building orientations and climate zones. This methodology takes into account the manufacturing, installation, maintenance and use phases of the building. Finally, the model was validated and a matrix in Excel was created as implementation of the model. - Highlights: • Method to assess the envelope impacts based on a simplified LCA • To be used at an earlier phase than the existing methods in a simple way. • It assigns a score by means of known sustainability indicators. • It estimates data about the embodied and operating environmental impacts. • It compares the investment costs with the costs of the consumed energy.

A model for the sustainable selection of building envelope assemblies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huedo, Patricia; Mulet, Elena; López-Mesa, Belinda

2016-01-01

The aim of this article is to define an evaluation model for the environmental impacts of building envelopes to support planners in the early phases of materials selection. The model is intended to estimate environmental impacts for different combinations of building envelope assemblies based on scientifically recognised sustainability indicators. These indicators will increase the amount of information that existing catalogues show to support planners in the selection of building assemblies. To define the model, first the environmental indicators were selected based on the specific aims of the intended sustainability assessment. Then, a simplified LCA methodology was developed to estimate the impacts applicable to three types of dwellings considering different envelope assemblies, building orientations and climate zones. This methodology takes into account the manufacturing, installation, maintenance and use phases of the building. Finally, the model was validated and a matrix in Excel was created as implementation of the model. - Highlights: • Method to assess the envelope impacts based on a simplified LCA • To be used at an earlier phase than the existing methods in a simple way. • It assigns a score by means of known sustainability indicators. • It estimates data about the embodied and operating environmental impacts. • It compares the investment costs with the costs of the consumed energy.

Key Aspects of the Proper Formulation of the Model in Numerical Analysis of the Influence of Mining Exploitation on Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florkowska Lucyna

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Numerical modelling is an important tool used to analyse various aspects of the impact of underground mining on existing and planned buildings. The interaction between the building and the soil is a complex matter and in many cases a numerical simulation is the only way of making calculations which will take into consideration the co–existence of a number of factors which have a significant influence on the solution. The complexity of the matter also makes it a difficult task to elaborate a proper mathematical model – it requires both a thorough knowledge of geologic conditions of the subsoil and the structural characteristics of the building.

Seismic simulation analysis of nuclear reactor building by soil-building interaction model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muto, K.; Kobayashi, T.; Motohashi, S.; Kusano, N.; Mizuno, N.; Sugiyama, N.

1981-01-01

Seismic simulation analysis were performed for evaluating soil-structure interaction effects by an analytical approach using a 'Lattice Model' developed by the authors. The purpose of this paper is to check the adequacy of this procedure for analyzing soil-structure interaction by means of comparing computed results with recorded ones. The 'Lattice Model' approach employs a lumped mass interactive model, in which not only the structure but also the underlying and/or surrounding soil are modeled as descretized elements. The analytical model used for this study extends about 310 m in the horizontal direction and about 103 m in depth. The reactor building is modeled as three shearing-bending sticks (outer wall, inner wall and shield wall) and the underlying and surrounding soil are divided into four shearing sticks (column directly beneath the reactor building, adjacent, near and distant columns). A corresponding input base motion for the 'Lattice Model' was determined by a deconvolution analysis using a recorded motion at elevation -18.5 m in the free-field. The results of this simulation analysis were shown to be in reasonably good agreement with the recorded ones in the forms of the distribution of ground motions and structural responses, acceleration time histories and related response spectra. These results showed that the 'Lattice Model' approach was an appropriate one to estimate the soil-structure interaction effects. (orig./HP)

A dynamic model for air-based photovoltaic thermal systems working under real operating conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sohel, M. Imroz; Ma, Zhenjun; Cooper, Paul; Adams, Jamie; Scott, Robert

2014-01-01

Highlights: • A dynamic model suitable for air-based photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems is presented. • The model is validated with PVT data from two unique buildings. • The simulated output variables match very well with the experimental data. • The performance of the PVT system under changing working condition is analysed. - Abstract: In this paper a dynamic model suitable for simulating real operating conditions of air-based photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems is presented. The performance of the model is validated by using the operational data collected from the building integrated photovoltaic (PVT) systems installed in two unique buildings. The modelled air outlet temperature and electrical power match very well with the experimental data. In Solar Decathlon house PVT, the average (RMS) error in air outlet temperatures was 4.2%. The average (RMS) error in electrical power was also 4.2%. In the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre PVT, the average errors (RMS) of PV and air temperatures were 3.8% and 2.2%, respectively. The performance of the PVT system under changing working condition is also analysed in this paper. The analysis includes the effect of ambient air temperature, air inlet temperature, air flow rate and solar irradiation on thermal, electrical, first law and second law efficiencies. Both the thermal and the 1st law efficiencies almost linearly increased with the increase of the ambient temperature. However, the PVT electrical efficiency and the second law efficiency decreased with the increase of the ambient temperature. All efficiencies expect the second law efficiency decreased with increase of the PVT air inlet temperature. The second law efficiency first increased and then reduced. With increasing the air flow rate all the efficiencies increased. The electrical and second law efficiencies become less sensitive when the air flow rate exceeded 300 l/s. Both the thermal and the 1st law efficiencies decreased while the electrical

THE USE OF AIR LAYERS IN BUILDING ENVELOPES FOR ENERGY SAVING DURING AIR CONDITIONING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. N. Osipov

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Since there are no large natural energy resources in Belarus, energy savings ought to be a point of the special attention. With this regard it is important to develop modern ways of savings during the process of air conditioning inside new buildings with an air layer in the enclosure, especially in translucent ones. The system of ventilation of air layers in the enclosure of a building has been introduced in which air movement is caused by the gravitational and aerodynamic forces. It makes it possible to arrange further ventilation – a natural, forced or a hybrid one. With the purpose of increasing and streamlining natural draught the partitions are used separating the different parts of air layers. For natural ventilation with the use of gravitational forces the holes in the upper and lower parts of the partitions between adjacent air layers are applied. Natural ventilation in the holes of the partitions is regulated by movable shutters, blinds or other adjusting devices. For combined or forced air exchange between adjacent zones of air layers fans are used pumping air from the air layer zones with a higher temperature to zones of air layers with lower temperature and vice versa. When air exchange is forced, in order to intensify the infiltration of air into zones of air layers jets are laid on a hard surface. In order to cool a multi-layered enclosure of a building, where the movement of air between the air layers (that have been formed by internal partitions is being fulfilled by a natural, forced or combined mode, a part of the air or the total air processed inside the building (i.e. conditioned or non-conditioned air cooler as compared with the outside one is being sent to these strata. Combined or forced flow of the air processed inside the building into the air layers is done through the ducts associated with the output channels of the air conditioners. The internal partitions are equipped with the air valve hole.

Building Chaotic Model From Incomplete Time Series

Science.gov (United States)

Siek, Michael; Solomatine, Dimitri

2010-05-01

This paper presents a number of novel techniques for building a predictive chaotic model from incomplete time series. A predictive chaotic model is built by reconstructing the time-delayed phase space from observed time series and the prediction is made by a global model or adaptive local models based on the dynamical neighbors found in the reconstructed phase space. In general, the building of any data-driven models depends on the completeness and quality of the data itself. However, the completeness of the data availability can not always be guaranteed since the measurement or data transmission is intermittently not working properly due to some reasons. We propose two main solutions dealing with incomplete time series: using imputing and non-imputing methods. For imputing methods, we utilized the interpolation methods (weighted sum of linear interpolations, Bayesian principle component analysis and cubic spline interpolation) and predictive models (neural network, kernel machine, chaotic model) for estimating the missing values. After imputing the missing values, the phase space reconstruction and chaotic model prediction are executed as a standard procedure. For non-imputing methods, we reconstructed the time-delayed phase space from observed time series with missing values. This reconstruction results in non-continuous trajectories. However, the local model prediction can still be made from the other dynamical neighbors reconstructed from non-missing values. We implemented and tested these methods to construct a chaotic model for predicting storm surges at Hoek van Holland as the entrance of Rotterdam Port. The hourly surge time series is available for duration of 1990-1996. For measuring the performance of the proposed methods, a synthetic time series with missing values generated by a particular random variable to the original (complete) time series is utilized. There exist two main performance measures used in this work: (1) error measures between the actual

Building Information Modeling for Managing Design and Construction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Berard, Ole Bengt

outcome of construction work. Even though contractors regularly encounter design information problems, these issues are accepted as a condition of doing business and better design information has yet to be defined. Building information modeling has the inherent promise of improving the quality of design...... information for work tasks. * Amount of Information – the number of documents and files, and other media, should be appropriate for the scope. The criteria were identified by empirical studies and theory on information quality in the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry and other fields......Contractors planning and executing construction work encounter many kinds of problems with design information, such as uncoordinated drawings and specification, missing relevant information, and late delivery of design information. Research has shown that missing design information and unintended...

VERIFICATION OF 3D BUILDING MODELS USING MUTUAL INFORMATION IN AIRBORNE OBLIQUE IMAGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. P. Nyaruhuma

2012-07-01

Full Text Available This paper describes a method for automatic verification of 3D building models using airborne oblique images. The problem being tackled is identifying buildings that are demolished or changed since the models were constructed or identifying wrong models using the images. The models verified are of CityGML LOD2 or higher since their edges are expected to coincide with actual building edges. The verification approach is based on information theory. Corresponding variables between building models and oblique images are used for deriving mutual information for individual edges, faces or whole buildings, and combined for all perspective images available for the building. The wireframe model edges are projected to images and verified using low level image features – the image pixel gradient directions. A building part is only checked against images in which it may be visible. The method has been tested with models constructed using laser points against Pictometry images that are available for most cities of Europe and may be publically viewed in the so called Birds Eye view of the Microsoft Bing Maps. Results are that nearly all buildings are correctly categorised as existing or demolished. Because we now concentrate only on roofs we also used the method to test and compare results from nadir images. This comparison made clear that especially height errors in models can be more reliably detected in oblique images because of the tilted view. Besides overall building verification, results per individual edges can be used for improving the 3D building models.

MODELLING AND SIMULATION MATTERS UPON THE STATIC ANALYSIS OF A BUILDING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

DUTA Alina

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The present paper puts forward a method applied to determine the static analysis and the stress of a two-level building, via an analysis with finite elements for building construction domain. Prior to this, we shall deal with a strategic issue, i.e. the achievement of a model with finite elements to validate the best approximation for the building structure. The method endorsed comes to replace the mathematical model, which is more complicated. However, a central issue that has to be dealt with before determining the displacements and the stress analysis is the achievement of the model with finite elements, as the best approximation of the building structure.

Guidelines for Reproducibly Building and Simulating Systems Biology Models.

Science.gov (United States)

Medley, J Kyle; Goldberg, Arthur P; Karr, Jonathan R

2016-10-01

Reproducibility is the cornerstone of the scientific method. However, currently, many systems biology models cannot easily be reproduced. This paper presents methods that address this problem. We analyzed the recent Mycoplasma genitalium whole-cell (WC) model to determine the requirements for reproducible modeling. We determined that reproducible modeling requires both repeatable model building and repeatable simulation. New standards and simulation software tools are needed to enhance and verify the reproducibility of modeling. New standards are needed to explicitly document every data source and assumption, and new deterministic parallel simulation tools are needed to quickly simulate large, complex models. We anticipate that these new standards and software will enable researchers to reproducibly build and simulate more complex models, including WC models.

Early experiences building a software quality prediction model

Science.gov (United States)

Agresti, W. W.; Evanco, W. M.; Smith, M. C.

1990-01-01

Early experiences building a software quality prediction model are discussed. The overall research objective is to establish a capability to project a software system's quality from an analysis of its design. The technical approach is to build multivariate models for estimating reliability and maintainability. Data from 21 Ada subsystems were analyzed to test hypotheses about various design structures leading to failure-prone or unmaintainable systems. Current design variables highlight the interconnectivity and visibility of compilation units. Other model variables provide for the effects of reusability and software changes. Reported results are preliminary because additional project data is being obtained and new hypotheses are being developed and tested. Current multivariate regression models are encouraging, explaining 60 to 80 percent of the variation in error density of the subsystems.

Using synthetic data to evaluate multiple regression and principal component analyses for statistical modeling of daily building energy consumption

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reddy, T.A. (Energy Systems Lab., Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)); Claridge, D.E. (Energy Systems Lab., Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States))

1994-01-01

Multiple regression modeling of monitored building energy use data is often faulted as a reliable means of predicting energy use on the grounds that multicollinearity between the regressor variables can lead both to improper interpretation of the relative importance of the various physical regressor parameters and to a model with unstable regressor coefficients. Principal component analysis (PCA) has the potential to overcome such drawbacks. While a few case studies have already attempted to apply this technique to building energy data, the objectives of this study were to make a broader evaluation of PCA and multiple regression analysis (MRA) and to establish guidelines under which one approach is preferable to the other. Four geographic locations in the US with different climatic conditions were selected and synthetic data sequence representative of daily energy use in large institutional buildings were generated in each location using a linear model with outdoor temperature, outdoor specific humidity and solar radiation as the three regression variables. MRA and PCA approaches were then applied to these data sets and their relative performances were compared. Conditions under which PCA seems to perform better than MRA were identified and preliminary recommendations on the use of either modeling approach formulated. (orig.)

Towards a Very Low Energy Building Stock: Modeling the U.S. Commercial Building Sector to Support Policy and Innovation Planning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coffey, Brian; Borgeson, Sam; Selkowitz, Stephen; Apte, Josh; Mathew, Paul; Haves, Philip

2009-07-01

This paper describes the origin, structure and continuing development of a model of time varying energy consumption in the US commercial building stock. The model is based on a flexible structure that disaggregates the stock into various categories (e.g. by building type, climate, vintage and life-cycle stage) and assigns attributes to each of these (e.g. floor area and energy use intensity by fuel type and end use), based on historical data and user-defined scenarios for future projections. In addition to supporting the interactive exploration of building stock dynamics, the model has been used to study the likely outcomes of specific policy and innovation scenarios targeting very low future energy consumption in the building stock. Model use has highlighted the scale of the challenge of meeting targets stated by various government and professional bodies, and the importance of considering both new construction and existing buildings.

Implications of Building Information Modeling on Interior Design Education: The Impact on Teaching Design Processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amy Roehl, MFA

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Currently, major shifts occur in design processes effecting business practices for industries involved with designing and delivering the built environment. These changing conditions are a direct result of industry adoption of relatively new technologies called BIM or Building Information Modeling. This review of literature examines implications of these changing processes on interior design education.

Thermal Models for Intelligent Heating of Buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thavlov, Anders; Bindner, Henrik W.

2012-01-01

the comfort of residents, proper prediction models for indoor temperature have to be developed. This paper presents a model for prediction of indoor temperature and power consumption from electrical space heating in an office building, using stochastic differential equations. The heat dynamic model is build......The Danish government has set the ambitious goal that the share of the total Danish electricity consumption, covered by wind energy, should be increased to 50% by year 2020. This asks for radical changes in how we utilize and transmit electricity in the future power grid. To fully utilize the high...... share of renewable power generation, which is in general intermittent and non-controllable, the consumption side has to be much more flexible than today. To achieve such flexibility, methods for moving power consumption in time, within the hourly timescale, have to be developed. One approach currently...

FITTING OF PARAMETRIC BUILDING MODELS TO OBLIQUE AERIAL IMAGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

U. S. Panday

2012-09-01

Full Text Available In literature and in photogrammetric workstations many approaches and systems to automatically reconstruct buildings from remote sensing data are described and available. Those building models are being used for instance in city modeling or in cadastre context. If a roof overhang is present, the building walls cannot be estimated correctly from nadir-view aerial images or airborne laser scanning (ALS data. This leads to inconsistent building outlines, which has a negative influence on visual impression, but more seriously also represents a wrong legal boundary in the cadaster. Oblique aerial images as opposed to nadir-view images reveal greater detail, enabling to see different views of an object taken from different directions. Building walls are visible from oblique images directly and those images are used for automated roof overhang estimation in this research. A fitting algorithm is employed to find roof parameters of simple buildings. It uses a least squares algorithm to fit projected wire frames to their corresponding edge lines extracted from the images. Self-occlusion is detected based on intersection result of viewing ray and the planes formed by the building whereas occlusion from other objects is detected using an ALS point cloud. Overhang and ground height are obtained by sweeping vertical and horizontal planes respectively. Experimental results are verified with high resolution ortho-images, field survey, and ALS data. Planimetric accuracy of 1cm mean and 5cm standard deviation was obtained, while buildings' orientation were accurate to mean of 0.23° and standard deviation of 0.96° with ortho-image. Overhang parameters were aligned to approximately 10cm with field survey. The ground and roof heights were accurate to mean of – 9cm and 8cm with standard deviations of 16cm and 8cm with ALS respectively. The developed approach reconstructs 3D building models well in cases of sufficient texture. More images should be acquired for

Assigning Robust Default Values in Building Performance Simulation Software for Improved Decision-Making in the Initial Stages of Building Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kyosuke Hiyama

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Applying data mining techniques on a database of BIM models could provide valuable insights in key design patterns implicitly present in these BIM models. The architectural designer would then be able to use previous data from existing building projects as default values in building performance simulation software for the early phases of building design. The author has proposed the method to minimize the magnitude of the variation in these default values in subsequent design stages. This approach maintains the accuracy of the simulation results in the initial stages of building design. In this study, a more convincing argument is presented to demonstrate the significance of the new method. The variation in the ideal default values for different building design conditions is assessed first. Next, the influence of each condition on these variations is investigated. The space depth is found to have a large impact on the ideal default value of the window to wall ratio. In addition, the presence or absence of lighting control and natural ventilation has a significant influence on the ideal default value. These effects can be used to identify the types of building conditions that should be considered to determine the ideal default values.

Thermo-active building systems and sound absorbers: Thermal comfort under real operation conditions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Köhler, Benjamin; Rage, Nils; Chigot, Pierre

2018-01-01

Radiant systems are established today and have a high ecological potential in buildings while ensuring thermal comfort. Free-hanging sound absorbers are commonly used for room acoustic control, but can reduce the heat exchange when suspended under an active slab. The aim of this study...... is to evaluate the impact on thermal comfort of horizontal and vertical free-hanging porous sound absorbers placed in rooms of a building cooled by Thermo-Active Building System (TABS), under real operation conditions. A design comparing five different ceiling coverage ratios and two room types has been...... implemented during three measurement periods. A clear correlation between increase of ceiling coverage ratio and reduction of thermal comfort could not be derived systematically for each measurement period and room type, contrarily to what was expected from literature. In the first two monitoring periods...

A financing model to solve financial barriers for implementing green building projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Sanghyo; Lee, Baekrae; Kim, Juhyung; Kim, Jaejun

2013-01-01

Along with the growing interest in greenhouse gas reduction, the effect of greenhouse gas energy reduction from implementing green buildings is gaining attention. The government of the Republic of Korea has set green growth as its paradigm for national development, and there is a growing interest in energy saving for green buildings. However, green buildings may have financial barriers that have high initial construction costs and uncertainties about future project value. Under the circumstances, governmental support to attract private funding is necessary to implement green building projects. The objective of this study is to suggest a financing model for facilitating green building projects with a governmental guarantee based on Certified Emission Reduction (CER). In this model, the government provides a guarantee for the increased costs of a green building project in return for CER. And this study presents the validation of the model as well as feasibility for implementing green building project. In addition, the suggested model assumed governmental guarantees for the increased cost, but private guarantees seem to be feasible as well because of the promising value of the guarantee from CER. To do this, certification of Clean Development Mechanisms (CDMs) for green buildings must be obtained.

Assessment of productivity loss in air-conditioned buildings using PMV index

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kosonen, R. [Halton OY, Kausala (Finland); Tan, F. [CapitaLand Commercial Limited, Singapore (Singapore)

2004-07-01

This theoretical study reports on the assessment of productivity loss in air-conditioned office buildings using the PMV approach and makes use of Wyon's reviews [D.P. Wyon, P.O. Fanger, B.W. Olesen, C.J.K. Pedersen, The mental performance of subjects clothed for comfort at two different air temperatures, Ergonomics 18 (1975) 358-374; D.P. Wyon, Individual microclimate control: required range, probable benefits and current feasibility, in: Proceedings of Indoor Air '96, Institute of Public Health, Tokyo, 1996; D.P. Wyon, Indoor environmental effects on productivity. IAQ 96 Paths to better building environments/Keynote address. Y. Kevin. Atlanta, ASHRAE, pp. 5-15] as the basis to compare and to relate how the productivity loss could be minimised through improved thermal comfort design criteria. The finding shows that task-related performance is significantly correlated with the human perception of thermal environment that in turn is dependent on temperatures. Different combinations of thermal criteria (air velocity, clo, metabolic, etc.) can lead to similar PMV value and the PMV equation is useful to predict productivity loss that is due to the rate of change in thermal conditions. The study also highlights the issues that remain to be resolved in future research. (author)

ADAPTIVE BUILDING EXOSKELETONS: A biomimetic model for the rehabilitation of social housing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giuliana Scuderi

2015-03-01

Full Text Available This research is an attempt to describe a new biomimetic model for the rehabilitation of social housing. In particular, the constructions built in Europe in the post Second World War period suffer of material and social degradation requiring architectural, functional and structural interventions. The analysis of the state of the art underlined the importance of the envelope in the definition of new performances and standards. Through a bio-mimicry approach, the paper shows the process leading to the definition of a building exoskeleton: a structural envelope able to solve complex sets of problems integrating different building systems. Adaptability results being a fundamental property to define an effective seismic and structural behavior but also to respond to changing user’s needs and environmental conditions. In the last part of the paper, information about feasible technologies and techniques to realize the exoskeleton are presented. Finally, the conclusions show the potentiality of the model if applied in critical contexts where intensive and diffusive interventions of recovery of social housing are needed.

Bibliography for the Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model

Science.gov (United States)

The Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model (I-BEAM) is a guidance tool designed for use by building professionals and others interested in indoor air quality in commercial buildings.

Air leakage analysis of research reactor HANARO building in typhoon condition for the nuclear emergency preparedness

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Goany Up; Lee, Hae Cho; Kim, Bong Seok; Kim, Jong Soo; Choi, Pyung Kyu [Dept. of Emergency Preparedness, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-12-15

To find out the leak characteristic of research reactor 'HANARO' building in a typhoon condition MELCOR code which normally is used to simulate severe accident behavior in a nuclear power plant was used to simulate the leak rate of air and fission products from reactor hall after the shutdown of the ventilation system of HANARO reactor building. For the simulation, HANARO building was designed by MELCOR code and typhoon condition passed through Daejeon in 2012 was applied. It was found that the leak rate is 0.1%·day{sup -1} of air, 0.004%·day{sup -1} of noble gas and 3.7×10{sup -5}%·day{sup -1} of aerosol during typhoon passing. The air leak rate of 0.1%·day can be converted into 1.36 m{sup 3}·hr{sup -1} , but the design leak rate in HANARO safety analysis report was considered as 600 m3·hr{sup -1} under the condition of 20 m·sec{sup -1} wind speed outside of the building by typhoon. Most of fission products during the maximum hypothesis accident at HANARO reactor will be contained in the reactor hall, so the direct radiation by remained fission products in the reactor hall will be the most important factor in designing emergency preparedness for HANARO reactor.

Air leakage analysis of research reactor HANARO building in typhoon condition for the nuclear emergency preparedness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Goany Up; Lee, Hae Cho; Kim, Bong Seok; Kim, Jong Soo; Choi, Pyung Kyu

2016-01-01

To find out the leak characteristic of research reactor 'HANARO' building in a typhoon condition MELCOR code which normally is used to simulate severe accident behavior in a nuclear power plant was used to simulate the leak rate of air and fission products from reactor hall after the shutdown of the ventilation system of HANARO reactor building. For the simulation, HANARO building was designed by MELCOR code and typhoon condition passed through Daejeon in 2012 was applied. It was found that the leak rate is 0.1%·day -1 of air, 0.004%·day -1 of noble gas and 3.7×10 -5 %·day -1 of aerosol during typhoon passing. The air leak rate of 0.1%·day can be converted into 1.36 m 3 ·hr -1 , but the design leak rate in HANARO safety analysis report was considered as 600 m3·hr -1 under the condition of 20 m·sec -1 wind speed outside of the building by typhoon. Most of fission products during the maximum hypothesis accident at HANARO reactor will be contained in the reactor hall, so the direct radiation by remained fission products in the reactor hall will be the most important factor in designing emergency preparedness for HANARO reactor

[Hygienic assessment of a recirculatory combined air-conditioning extract-and-input system in office building].

Science.gov (United States)

Malysheva, A G; Abramov, E G

2006-01-01

The high concentrations of lead were reveled in the air and dust of some premises and on the filters of a combined air-conditioning extract-and-input system in the high-rise office buildings located in the ecologically lead favorable environment. The dust content of lead in some premises on the first floors dust was as high as 200 mg/kg, which was more than 6 times higher than that in the soil at the highway near the office buildings. The use of new technologies and devices for cleaning and optimizing the air in the premises requires analytical studies to assess the quality of the environment, by taking into account the optimal conditions of their operation.

Protocol to Manage Heritage-Building Interventions Using Heritage Building Information Modelling (HBIM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isabel Jordan-Palomar

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The workflow in historic architecture projects presents problems related to the lack of clarity of processes, dispersion of information and the use of outdated tools. Different heritage organisations have showed interest in innovative methods to resolve those problems and improve cultural tourism for sustainable economic development. Building Information Modelling (BIM has emerged as a suitable computerised system for improving heritage management. Its application to historic buildings is named Historic BIM (HBIM. HBIM literature highlights the need for further research in terms of the overall processes of heritage projects, its practical implementation and a need for better cultural documentation. This work uses Design Science Research to develop a protocol to improve the workflow in heritage interdisciplinary projects. Research techniques used include documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. HBIM is proposed as a virtual model that will hold heritage data and will articulate processes. As a result, a simple and visual HBIM protocol was developed and applied in a real case study. The protocol was named BIMlegacy and it is divided into eight phases: building registration, determine intervention options, develop design for intervention, planning the physical intervention, physical intervention, handover, maintenance and culture dissemination. It contemplates all the stakeholders involved.

Regulatory odour model development: Survey of modelling tools and datasets with focus on building effects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, H. R.; Løfstrøm, P.; Berkowicz, R.

dispersion models for estimating local concentration levels in general. However, the report focuses on some particular issues, which are relevant for subsequent work on odour due to animal production. An issue of primary concern is the effect that buildings (stables) have on flow and dispersion. The handling...... of building effects is a complicated problem, and a major part of the report is devoted to the treatment of building effects in dispersion models......A project within the framework of a larger research programme, Action Plan for the Aquatic Environment III (VMP III) aims towards improving an atmospheric dispersion model (OML). The OML model is used for regulatory applications in Denmark, and it is the candidate model to be used also in future...

Development of surrogate models using artificial neural network for building shell energy labelling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Melo, A.P.; Cóstola, D.; Lamberts, R.; Hensen, J.L.M.

2014-01-01

Surrogate models are an important part of building energy labelling programs, but these models still present low accuracy, particularly in cooling-dominated climates. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using an artificial neural network (ANN) to improve the accuracy of surrogate models for labelling purposes. An ANN was applied to model the building stock of a city in Brazil, based on the results of extensive simulations using the high-resolution building energy simulation program EnergyPlus. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses were carried out to evaluate the behaviour of the ANN model, and the variations in the best and worst performance for several typologies were analysed in relation to variations in the input parameters and building characteristics. The results obtained indicate that an ANN can represent the interaction between input and output data for a vast and diverse building stock. Sensitivity analysis showed that no single input parameter can be identified as the main factor responsible for the building energy performance. The uncertainty associated with several parameters plays a major role in assessing building energy performance, together with the facade area and the shell-to-floor ratio. The results of this study may have a profound impact as ANNs could be applied in the future to define regulations in many countries, with positive effects on optimizing the energy consumption. - Highlights: • We model several typologies which have variation in input parameters. • We evaluate the accuracy of surrogate models for labelling purposes. • ANN is applied to model the building stock. • Uncertainty in building plays a major role in the building energy performance. • Results show that ANN could help to develop building energy labelling systems

Development of An Energy Modeling Approach to Analyse Historical Building Performance

OpenAIRE

Giuliani, Marco

2014-01-01

In the last years the attentions on the energy efficiency on historical buildings grows, as different research project took place across Europe. The attention on combining, the need of the preservation of the buildings, their value and their characteristic, with the need of the reduction of energy consumption and the improvements of indoor comfort condition, stimulate the discussion of two points of view that are usually in contradiction, buildings engineer and Conservation Institution. The r...

Building energy analysis of Electrical Engineering Building from DesignBuilder tool: calibration and simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Cárdenas, J.; Osma, G.; Caicedo, C.; Torres, A.; Sánchez, S.; Ordóñez, G.

2016-07-01

This research shows the energy analysis of the Electrical Engineering Building, located on campus of the Industrial University of Santander in Bucaramanga - Colombia. This building is a green pilot for analysing energy saving strategies such as solar pipes, green roof, daylighting, and automation, among others. Energy analysis was performed by means of DesignBuilder software from virtual model of the building. Several variables were analysed such as air temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, daylighting, and energy consumption. According to two criteria, thermal load and energy consumption, critical areas were defined. The calibration and validation process of the virtual model was done obtaining error below 5% in comparison with measured values. The simulations show that the average indoor temperature in the critical areas of the building was 27°C, whilst relative humidity reached values near to 70% per year. The most critical discomfort conditions were found in the area of the greatest concentration of people, which has an average annual temperature of 30°C. Solar pipes can increase 33% daylight levels into the areas located on the upper floors of the building. In the case of the green roofs, the simulated results show that these reduces of nearly 31% of the internal heat gains through the roof, as well as a decrease in energy consumption related to air conditioning of 5% for some areas on the fourth and fifth floor. The estimated energy consumption of the building was 69 283 kWh per year.

Building groundwater modeling capacity in Mongolia

Science.gov (United States)

Valder, Joshua F.; Carter, Janet M.; Anderson, Mark T.; Davis, Kyle W.; Haynes, Michelle A.; Dorjsuren Dechinlhundev,

2016-06-16

Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia (fig. 1), is dependent on groundwater for its municipal and industrial water supply. The population of Mongolia is about 3 million people, with about one-half the population residing in or near Ulaanbaatar (World Population Review, 2016). Groundwater is drawn from a network of shallow wells in an alluvial aquifer along the Tuul River. Evidence indicates that current water use may not be sustainable from existing water sources, especially when factoring the projected water demand from a rapidly growing urban population (Ministry of Environment and Green Development, 2013). In response, the Government of Mongolia Ministry of Environment, Green Development, and Tourism (MEGDT) and the Freshwater Institute, Mongolia, requested technical assistance on groundwater modeling through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Scientists from the USGS and USACE provided two workshops in 2015 to Mongolian hydrology experts on basic principles of groundwater modeling using the USGS groundwater modeling program MODFLOW-2005 (Harbaugh, 2005). The purpose of the workshops was to bring together representatives from the Government of Mongolia, local universities, technical experts, and other key stakeholders to build in-country capacity in hydrogeology and groundwater modeling.A preliminary steady-state groundwater-flow model was developed as part of the workshops to demonstrate groundwater modeling techniques to simulate groundwater conditions in alluvial deposits along the Tuul River in the vicinity of Ulaanbaatar. ModelMuse (Winston, 2009) was used as the graphical user interface for MODFLOW for training purposes during the workshops. Basic and advanced groundwater modeling concepts included in the workshops were groundwater principles; estimating hydraulic properties; developing model grids, data sets, and MODFLOW input files; and viewing and evaluating MODFLOW output files. A key to success was

JEDDAH HISTORICAL BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING "JHBIM" OLD JEDDAH – SAUDI ARABIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Baik

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The historic city of Jeddah faces serious issues in the conservation, documentation and recording of its valuable building stock. Terrestrial Laser Scanning and Architectural Photogrammetry have already been used in many Heritage sites in the world. The integration of heritage recording and Building Information Modelling (BIM has been introduced as HBIM and is now a method to document and manage these buildings. In the last decade many traditional surveying methods were used to record the buildings in Old Jeddah. However, these methods take a long time, can sometimes provide unreliable information and often lack completeness. This paper will look at another approach for heritage recording by using the Jeddah Historical Building Information Modelling (JHBIM.

Radiological conditions and experiences in the TMI-2 Auxiliary Building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruhter, P.E.; Zurliene, W.G.

1988-01-01

Although the radiological conditions following the TMI-2 accident were extraordinary, those that had a potential impact on personnel were largely confined to the Auxiliary and Fuel Handling Building. The most significant pathway was the Letdown and Make-Up and Purification System. Dose rates in some locations in the Aux/Fuel Handling Buildings were in excess of 3 mSv/s (1000 R/h) during the first few days following the accident. They decreased after three to four days and stabilized after about one week. Airborne radioactivity levels were initially due to the release of noble gases, and subsequently due to resuspension of surface contamination. During the first month, the mixture of fission products in the reactor coolant change from one of largely cesium to where the strontium and cesium were about equal in radiological importance. This created some very high beta radiation levels. The significant strontium levels caused the contamination control limit to be reduced to one-half of the pre-accident limit. 5 refs., 6 figs

A Hierarchical Building Segmentation in Digital Surface Models for 3D Reconstruction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yiming Yan

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In this study, a hierarchical method for segmenting buildings in a digital surface model (DSM, which is used in a novel framework for 3D reconstruction, is proposed. Most 3D reconstructions of buildings are model-based. However, the limitations of these methods are overreliance on completeness of the offline-constructed models of buildings, and the completeness is not easily guaranteed since in modern cities buildings can be of a variety of types. Therefore, a model-free framework using high precision DSM and texture-images buildings was introduced. There are two key problems with this framework. The first one is how to accurately extract the buildings from the DSM. Most segmentation methods are limited by either the terrain factors or the difficult choice of parameter-settings. A level-set method are employed to roughly find the building regions in the DSM, and then a recently proposed ‘occlusions of random textures model’ are used to enhance the local segmentation of the buildings. The second problem is how to generate the facades of buildings. Synergizing with the corresponding texture-images, we propose a roof-contour guided interpolation of building facades. The 3D reconstruction results achieved by airborne-like images and satellites are compared. Experiments show that the segmentation method has good performance, and 3D reconstruction is easily performed by our framework, and better visualization results can be obtained by airborne-like images, which can be further replaced by UAV images.

Modelling of settlement induced building damage

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Giardina, G.

2013-01-01

This thesis focuses on the modelling of settlement induced damage to masonry buildings. In densely populated areas, the need for new space is nowadays producing a rapid increment of underground excavations. Due to the construction of new metro lines, tunnelling activity in urban areas is growing.

A Building Model Framework for a Genetic Algorithm Multi-objective Model Predictive Control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arendt, Krzysztof; Ionesi, Ana; Jradi, Muhyiddine

2016-01-01

Model Predictive Control (MPC) of building systems is a promising approach to optimize building energy performance. In contrast to traditional control strategies which are reactive in nature, MPC optimizes the utilization of resources based on the predicted effects. It has been shown that energy ...

A Financing Model to Solve Financial Barriers for Implementing Green Building Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Baekrae; Kim, Juhyung; Kim, Jaejun

2013-01-01

Along with the growing interest in greenhouse gas reduction, the effect of greenhouse gas energy reduction from implementing green buildings is gaining attention. The government of the Republic of Korea has set green growth as its paradigm for national development, and there is a growing interest in energy saving for green buildings. However, green buildings may have financial barriers that have high initial construction costs and uncertainties about future project value. Under the circumstances, governmental support to attract private funding is necessary to implement green building projects. The objective of this study is to suggest a financing model for facilitating green building projects with a governmental guarantee based on Certified Emission Reduction (CER). In this model, the government provides a guarantee for the increased costs of a green building project in return for CER. And this study presents the validation of the model as well as feasibility for implementing green building project. In addition, the suggested model assumed governmental guarantees for the increased cost, but private guarantees seem to be feasible as well because of the promising value of the guarantee from CER. To do this, certification of Clean Development Mechanisms (CDMs) for green buildings must be obtained. PMID:24376379

Hybrid LCA model for assessing the embodied environmental impacts of buildings in South Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jang, Minho; Hong, Taehoon; Ji, Changyoon

2015-01-01

The assessment of the embodied environmental impacts of buildings can help decision-makers plan environment-friendly buildings and reduce environmental impacts. For a more comprehensive assessment of the embodied environmental impacts of buildings, a hybrid life cycle assessment model was developed in this study. The developed model can assess the embodied environmental impacts (global warming, ozone layer depletion, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical ozone creation, abiotic depletion, and human toxicity) generated directly and indirectly in the material manufacturing, transportation, and construction phases. To demonstrate the application and validity of the developed model, the environmental impacts of an elementary school building were assessed using the developed model and compared with the results of a previous model used in a case study. The embodied environmental impacts from the previous model were lower than those from the developed model by 4.6–25.2%. Particularly, human toxicity potential (13 kg C 6 H 6 eq.) calculated by the previous model was much lower (1965 kg C 6 H 6 eq.) than what was calculated by the developed model. The results indicated that the developed model can quantify the embodied environmental impacts of buildings more comprehensively, and can be used by decision-makers as a tool for selecting environment-friendly buildings. - Highlights: • The model was developed to assess the embodied environmental impacts of buildings. • The model evaluates GWP, ODP, AP, EP, POCP, ADP, and HTP as environmental impacts. • The model presents more comprehensive results than the previous model by 4.6–100%. • The model can present the HTP of buildings, which the previous models cannot do. • Decision-makers can use the model for selecting environment-friendly buildings

Characteristics of radon and its progeny concentrations in air-conditioned office buildings in Tokyo

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tokonami, S.; Furukawa, M.; Shicchi, Y.; Sanada, T.; Yamada, Y.

2003-01-01

A series of measurements were carried out to understand the characteristics of radon and its progeny in air-conditioned office buildings. Long-term measurements of radon were made with etched track detectors. Continuous measurements of radon and its progeny concentrations were also conducted in some buildings to study their temporal variations. The results show that radon and its progeny concentrations routinely varied along with working activities. They are generally low while people are working, due to air conditioning, whereas they rise steadily after the air conditioning stops. When considering action levels not only in homes but also workplaces, attention should be paid to annual doses from the viewpoint of radiation protection. The annual dose is generally estimated with a long-term measurement of radon concentration using a passive device such as an etched track detector. Since its reading corresponds to a long-term average concentration regardless of working hours, the annual dose will be overestimated. When comparing a real dose after considering the working hours, they differ by a factor of more than 2. (author)

Boxes of Model Building and Visualization.

Science.gov (United States)

Turk, Dušan

2017-01-01

Macromolecular crystallography and electron microscopy (single-particle and in situ tomography) are merging into a single approach used by the two coalescing scientific communities. The merger is a consequence of technical developments that enabled determination of atomic structures of macromolecules by electron microscopy. Technological progress in experimental methods of macromolecular structure determination, computer hardware, and software changed and continues to change the nature of model building and visualization of molecular structures. However, the increase in automation and availability of structure validation are reducing interactive manual model building to fiddling with details. On the other hand, interactive modeling tools increasingly rely on search and complex energy calculation procedures, which make manually driven changes in geometry increasingly powerful and at the same time less demanding. Thus, the need for accurate manual positioning of a model is decreasing. The user's push only needs to be sufficient to bring the model within the increasing convergence radius of the computing tools. It seems that we can now better than ever determine an average single structure. The tools work better, requirements for engagement of human brain are lowered, and the frontier of intellectual and scientific challenges has moved on. The quest for resolution of new challenges requires out-of-the-box thinking. A few issues such as model bias and correctness of structure, ongoing developments in parameters defining geometric restraints, limitations of the ideal average single structure, and limitations of Bragg spot data are discussed here, together with the challenges that lie ahead.

Implementation of Models for Building Envelope Air Flow Fields in a Whole Building Hygrothermal Simulation Tool

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Karl Grau; Rode, Carsten

2009-01-01

cavity such as behind the exterior cladding of a building envelope, i.e. a flow which is parallel to the construction plane. (2) Infiltration/exfiltration of air through the building envelope, i.e. a flow which is perpendicular to the constructionplane. The paper presents the models and how they have...

Integration of Models of Building Interiors with Cadastral Data

OpenAIRE

Gotlib Dariusz; Karabin Marcin

2017-01-01

Demands for applications which use models of building interiors is growing and highly diversified. Those models are applied at the stage of designing and construction of a building, in applications which support real estate management, in navigation and marketing systems and, finally, in crisis management and security systems. They are created on the basis of different data: architectural and construction plans, both, in the analogue form, as well as CAD files, BIM data files, by means of las...

Models for map building and navigation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Penna, M.A.; Jian Wu

1993-01-01

In this paper the authors present several models for solving map building and navigation problems. These models are motivated by biological processes, and presented in the context of artificial neural networks. Since the nodes, weights, and threshold functions of the models all have physical meanings, they can easily predict network topologies and avoid traditional trial-and-error training. On one hand, this makes their models useful in constructing solutions to engineering problems (problems such as those that occur in robotics, for example). On the other hand, this might also contribute to the ability of their models to explain some biological processes, few of which are completely understood at this time

Earthquake risk assessment of building structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ellingwood, Bruce R.

2001-01-01

During the past two decades, probabilistic risk analysis tools have been applied to assess the performance of new and existing building structural systems. Structural design and evaluation of buildings and other facilities with regard to their ability to withstand the effects of earthquakes requires special considerations that are not normally a part of such evaluations for other occupancy, service and environmental loads. This paper reviews some of these special considerations, specifically as they pertain to probability-based codified design and reliability-based condition assessment of existing buildings. Difficulties experienced in implementing probability-based limit states design criteria for earthquake are summarized. Comparisons of predicted and observed building damage highlight the limitations of using current deterministic approaches for post-earthquake building condition assessment. The importance of inherent randomness and modeling uncertainty in forecasting building performance is examined through a building fragility assessment of a steel frame with welded connections that was damaged during the Northridge Earthquake of 1994. The prospects for future improvements in earthquake-resistant design procedures based on a more rational probability-based treatment of uncertainty are examined

Reducing the operational energy demand in buildings using building information modeling tools and sustainability approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mojtaba Valinejad Shoubi

2015-03-01

Full Text Available A sustainable building is constructed of materials that could decrease environmental impacts, such as energy usage, during the lifecycle of the building. Building Information Modeling (BIM has been identified as an effective tool for building performance analysis virtually in the design stage. The main aims of this study were to assess various combinations of materials using BIM and identify alternative, sustainable solutions to reduce operational energy consumption. The amount of energy consumed by a double story bungalow house in Johor, Malaysia, and assessments of alternative material configurations to determine the best energy performance were evaluated by using Revit Architecture 2012 and Autodesk Ecotect Analysis software to show which of the materials helped in reducing the operational energy use of the building to the greatest extent throughout its annual life cycle. At the end, some alternative, sustainable designs in terms of energy savings have been suggested.

Study of Customer Satisfaction with Living Conditions in New Apartment Buildings

OpenAIRE

Lepkova Natalija; Butkiene Egle; Bełej Miroslaw

2016-01-01

The article aims to analyze the Lithuanian housing market and to look into the satisfaction of people with living conditions in new apartment buildings on this market. The article presents the concept of customer satisfaction in construction and the criteria that define the quality of dwellings; the benefits, consequences, merits and demerits of the assessment of customer satisfaction are also named. A survey of customer satisfaction helped to evaluate the quality of dwellings according to th...

Building 235-F Goldsim Fate And Transport Model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Taylor, G. A.; Phifer, M. A.

2012-09-14

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) personnel, at the request of Area Completion Projects (ACP), evaluated In-Situ Disposal (ISD) alternatives that are under consideration for deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) of Building 235-F and the Building 294-2F Sand Filter. SRNL personnel developed and used a GoldSim fate and transport model, which is consistent with Musall 2012, to evaluate relative to groundwater protection, ISD alternatives that involve either source removal and/or the grouting of portions or all of 235-F. This evaluation was conducted through the development and use of a Building 235-F GoldSim fate and transport model. The model simulates contaminant release from four 235-F process areas and the 294-2F Sand Filter. In addition, it simulates the fate and transport through the vadose zone, the Upper Three Runs (UTR) aquifer, and the Upper Three Runs (UTR) creek. The model is designed as a stochastic model, and as such it can provide both deterministic and stochastic (probabilistic) results. The results show that the median radium activity concentrations exceed the 5 ?Ci/L radium MCL at the edge of the building for all ISD alternatives after 10,000 years, except those with a sufficient amount of inventory removed. A very interesting result was that grouting was shown to basically have minimal effect on the radium activity concentration. During the first 1,000 years grouting may have some small positive benefit relative to radium, however after that it may have a slightly deleterious effect. The Pb-210 results, relative to its 0.06 ?Ci/L PRG, are essentially identical to the radium results, but the Pb-210 results exhibit a lesser degree of exceedance. In summary, some level of inventory removal will be required to ensure that groundwater standards are met.

Building 235-F Goldsim Fate And Transport Model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, G. A.; Phifer, M. A.

2012-01-01

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) personnel, at the request of Area Completion Projects (ACP), evaluated In-Situ Disposal (ISD) alternatives that are under consideration for deactivation and decommissioning (D and D) of Building 235-F and the Building 294-2F Sand Filter. SRNL personnel developed and used a GoldSim fate and transport model, which is consistent with Musall 2012, to evaluate relative to groundwater protection, ISD alternatives that involve either source removal and/or the grouting of portions or all of 235-F. This evaluation was conducted through the development and use of a Building 235-F GoldSim fate and transport model. The model simulates contaminant release from four 235-F process areas and the 294-2F Sand Filter. In addition, it simulates the fate and transport through the vadose zone, the Upper Three Runs (UTR) aquifer, and the Upper Three Runs (UTR) creek. The model is designed as a stochastic model, and as such it can provide both deterministic and stochastic (probabilistic) results. The results show that the median radium activity concentrations exceed the 5 ρCi/L radium MCL at the edge of the building for all ISD alternatives after 10,000 years, except those with a sufficient amount of inventory removed. A very interesting result was that grouting was shown to basically have minimal effect on the radium activity concentration. During the first 1,000 years grouting may have some small positive benefit relative to radium, however after that it may have a slightly deleterious effect. The Pb-210 results, relative to its 0.06 ρCi/L PRG, are essentially identical to the radium results, but the Pb-210 results exhibit a lesser degree of exceedance. In summary, some level of inventory removal will be required to ensure that groundwater standards are met

Construction Process Simulation and Safety Analysis Based on Building Information Model and 4D Technology

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

HU Zhenzhong; ZHANG Jianping; DENG Ziyin

2008-01-01

Time-dependent structure analysis theory has been proved to be more accurate and reliable com-pared to commonly used methods during construction. However, so far applications are limited to partial pe-riod and part of the structure because of immeasurable artificial intervention. Based on the building informa-tion model (BIM) and four-dimensional (4D) technology, this paper proposes an improves structure analysis method, which can generate structural geometry, resistance model, and loading conditions automatically by a close interlink of the schedule information, architectural model, and material properties. The method was applied to a safety analysis during a continuous and dynamic simulation of the entire construction process.The results show that the organic combination of the BIM, 4D technology, construction simulation, and safety analysis of time-dependent structures is feasible and practical. This research also lays a foundation for further researches on building lifecycle management by combining architectural design, structure analy-sis, and construction management.

Raetrad model extensions for radon entry into multi-level buildings with basements or crawl spaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Nielson, K K; Rogers, V C; Rogers, V; Holt, R B

1997-10-01

The RAETRAD model was generalized to characterize radon generation and movement from soils and building materials into multi-level buildings with basements or crawl spaces. With the generalization, the model retains its original simplicity and ease of use. The model calculates radon entry rates that are consistent with measurements published for basement test structures at Colorado State University, confirming approximately equal contributions from diffusion and pressure-driven air flow at indoor-outdoor air pressure differences of deltaP(i-o) = -3.5 Pa. About one-fourth of the diffusive radon entry comes from concrete slabs and three-fourths comes from the surrounding soils. Calculated radon entry rates with and without a barrier over floor-wall shrinkage cracks generally agree with Colorado State University measurements when a sustained pressure of deltaP(i-o) = -2 Pa is used to represent calm wind (<1 m s(-1)) conditions. Calculated radon distributions in a 2-level house also are consistent with published measurements and equations.

Internet of Things building blocks and business models

CERN Document Server

Hussain, Fatima

2017-01-01

This book describes the building blocks and introductory business models for Internet of Things (IoT). The author provide an overview of the entire IoT architecture and constituent layers, followed by detail description of each block . Various inter-connecting technologies and sensors are discussed in context of IoT networks. In addition to this, concepts of Big Data and Fog Computing are presented and characterized as per data generated by versatile IoT applications . Smart parking system and context aware services are presented as an hybrid model of cloud and Fog Afterwards, various IoT applications and respective business models are discussed. Finally, author summarizes the IoT building blocks and identify research issues in each, and suggest potential research projects worthy of pursuing. .

Heterotic SO(32) model building in four dimensions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, K.S.; Groot Nibbelink, S.; Minnesota Univ., Minneapolis, MN; Trapletti, M.

2004-10-01

Four dimensional heterotic SO(32) orbifold models are classified systematically with model building applications in mind. We obtain all Z 3 , Z 7 and Z 2N models based on vectorial gauge shifts. The resulting gauge groups are reminiscent of those of type-I model building, as they always take the form SO(2n 0 ) x U(n 1 ) x.. x U(n N-1 ) x SO(2n N ). The complete twisted spectrum is determined simultaneously for all orbifold models in a parametric way depending on n 0 ,.., n N , rather than on a model by model basis. This reveals interesting patterns in the twisted states: They are always built out of vectors and anti-symmetric tensors of the U(n) groups, and either vectors or spinors of the SO(2n) groups. Our results may shed additional light on the S-duality between heterotic and type-I strings in four dimensions. As a spin-off we obtain an SO(10) GUT model with four generations from the Z 4 orbifold. (orig.)

High-Resolution Remote Sensing Image Building Extraction Based on Markov Model

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, W.; Yan, L.; Chang, Y.; Gong, L.

2018-04-01

With the increase of resolution, remote sensing images have the characteristics of increased information load, increased noise, more complex feature geometry and texture information, which makes the extraction of building information more difficult. To solve this problem, this paper designs a high resolution remote sensing image building extraction method based on Markov model. This method introduces Contourlet domain map clustering and Markov model, captures and enhances the contour and texture information of high-resolution remote sensing image features in multiple directions, and further designs the spectral feature index that can characterize "pseudo-buildings" in the building area. Through the multi-scale segmentation and extraction of image features, the fine extraction from the building area to the building is realized. Experiments show that this method can restrain the noise of high-resolution remote sensing images, reduce the interference of non-target ground texture information, and remove the shadow, vegetation and other pseudo-building information, compared with the traditional pixel-level image information extraction, better performance in building extraction precision, accuracy and completeness.

A Hybrid Backward-Forward Iterative Model for Improving Capacity Building of Earth Observations for Sustainable Societal Application

Science.gov (United States)

Hossain, F.; Iqbal, N.; Lee, H.; Muhammad, A.

2015-12-01

When it comes to building durable capacity for implementing state of the art technology and earth observation (EO) data for improved decision making, it has been long recognized that a unidirectional approach (from research to application) often does not work. Co-design of capacity building effort has recently been recommended as a better alternative. This approach is a two-way street where scientists and stakeholders engage intimately along the entire chain of actions from design of research experiments to packaging of decision making tools and each party provides an equal amount of input. Scientists execute research experiments based on boundary conditions and outputs that are defined as tangible by stakeholders for decision making. On the other hand, decision making tools are packaged by stakeholders with scientists ensuring the application-specific science is relevant. In this talk, we will overview one such iterative capacity building approach that we have implemented for gravimetry-based satellite (GRACE) EO data for improved groundwater management in Pakistan. We call our approach a hybrid approach where the initial step is a forward model involving a conventional short-term (3 day) capacity building workshop in the stakeholder environment addressing a very large audience. In this forward model, the net is cast wide to 'shortlist' a set of highly motivated stakeholder agency staffs who are then engaged more directly in 1-1 training. In the next step (the backward model), these short listed staffs are then brought back in the research environment of the scientists (supply) for 1-1 and long-term (6 months) intense brainstorming, training, and design of decision making tools. The advantage of this backward model is that it allows for a much better understanding for scientists of the ground conditions and hurdles of making a EO-based scientific innovation work for a specific decision making problem that is otherwise fundamentally impossible in conventional

Hybrid LCA model for assessing the embodied environmental impacts of buildings in South Korea

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jang, Minho, E-mail: minmin40@hanmail.net [Asset Management Division, Mate Plus Co., Ltd., 9th Fl., Financial News Bldg. 24-5 Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, 150-877 (Korea, Republic of); Hong, Taehoon, E-mail: hong7@yonsei.ac.kr [Department of Architectural Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 120-749 (Korea, Republic of); Ji, Changyoon, E-mail: chnagyoon@yonsei.ac.kr [Department of Architectural Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 120-749 (Korea, Republic of)

2015-01-15

The assessment of the embodied environmental impacts of buildings can help decision-makers plan environment-friendly buildings and reduce environmental impacts. For a more comprehensive assessment of the embodied environmental impacts of buildings, a hybrid life cycle assessment model was developed in this study. The developed model can assess the embodied environmental impacts (global warming, ozone layer depletion, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical ozone creation, abiotic depletion, and human toxicity) generated directly and indirectly in the material manufacturing, transportation, and construction phases. To demonstrate the application and validity of the developed model, the environmental impacts of an elementary school building were assessed using the developed model and compared with the results of a previous model used in a case study. The embodied environmental impacts from the previous model were lower than those from the developed model by 4.6–25.2%. Particularly, human toxicity potential (13 kg C{sub 6}H{sub 6} eq.) calculated by the previous model was much lower (1965 kg C{sub 6}H{sub 6} eq.) than what was calculated by the developed model. The results indicated that the developed model can quantify the embodied environmental impacts of buildings more comprehensively, and can be used by decision-makers as a tool for selecting environment-friendly buildings. - Highlights: • The model was developed to assess the embodied environmental impacts of buildings. • The model evaluates GWP, ODP, AP, EP, POCP, ADP, and HTP as environmental impacts. • The model presents more comprehensive results than the previous model by 4.6–100%. • The model can present the HTP of buildings, which the previous models cannot do. • Decision-makers can use the model for selecting environment-friendly buildings.

The Future of Air Conditioning for Buildings - Executive Summary

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goetzler, William [Navigant Consulting Inc., Burlington, MA (United States); Guernsey, Matt [Navigant Consulting Inc., Burlington, MA (United States); Young, J. [Navigant Consulting Inc., Burlington, MA (United States); Fuhrman, J. [Navigant Consulting Inc., Burlington, MA (United States); Abdelaziz, Omar [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2016-07-01

The Building Technologies Office (BTO), within the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, works with researchers and industry to develop and deploy technologies that can substantially reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in residential and commercial buildings. Air conditioning (A/C) systems in buildings contribute to GHG emissions both directly through refrigerant emissions, as well as indirectly through fossil fuel combustion for power generation. BTO promotes pre-competitive research and development (R&D) on next-generation HVAC technologies that support the phase down of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) production and consumption, as well as cost-effective energy efficiency improvements. Over the past several decades, product costs and lifecycle cooling costs have declined substantially in many global markets due to improved, higher-volume manufacturing and higher energy efficiency driven by R&D investments and efficiency policies including minimum efficiency standards and labeling programs.1 This report characterizes the current landscape and trends in the global A/C market, including discussion of both direct and indirect climate impacts, and potential global warming impacts from growing global A/C usage. The report also documents solutions that can help achieve international goals for energy efficiency and GHG emissions reductions. The solutions include pathways related to low-global warming potential2 (GWP) refrigerants, energy efficiency innovations, long-term R&D initiatives, and regulatory actions. DOE provides, with this report, a fact-based vision for the future of A/C use around the world. DOE intends for this vision to reflect a broad and balanced aggregation of perspectives. DOE brings together this content in an effort to support dialogue within the international community and help keep key facts and objectives at the forefront among the many important discussions.

Integration of Models of Building Interiors with Cadastral Data

Science.gov (United States)

Gotlib, Dariusz; Karabin, Marcin

2017-12-01

Demands for applications which use models of building interiors is growing and highly diversified. Those models are applied at the stage of designing and construction of a building, in applications which support real estate management, in navigation and marketing systems and, finally, in crisis management and security systems. They are created on the basis of different data: architectural and construction plans, both, in the analogue form, as well as CAD files, BIM data files, by means of laser scanning (TLS) and conventional surveys. In this context the issue of searching solutions which would integrate the existing models and lead to elimination of data redundancy is becoming more important. The authors analysed the possible input- of cadastral data (legal extent of premises) at the stage of the creation and updating different models of building's interiors. The paper focuses on one issue - the way of describing the geometry of premises basing on the most popular source data, i.e. architectural and construction plans. However, the described rules may be considered as universal and also may be applied in practice concerned may be used during the process of creation and updating indoor models based on BIM dataset or laser scanning clouds

Implicit Regularization for Reconstructing 3D Building Rooftop Models Using Airborne LiDAR Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaewook Jung

2017-03-01

Full Text Available With rapid urbanization, highly accurate and semantically rich virtualization of building assets in 3D become more critical for supporting various applications, including urban planning, emergency response and location-based services. Many research efforts have been conducted to automatically reconstruct building models at city-scale from remotely sensed data. However, developing a fully-automated photogrammetric computer vision system enabling the massive generation of highly accurate building models still remains a challenging task. One the most challenging task for 3D building model reconstruction is to regularize the noises introduced in the boundary of building object retrieved from a raw data with lack of knowledge on its true shape. This paper proposes a data-driven modeling approach to reconstruct 3D rooftop models at city-scale from airborne laser scanning (ALS data. The focus of the proposed method is to implicitly derive the shape regularity of 3D building rooftops from given noisy information of building boundary in a progressive manner. This study covers a full chain of 3D building modeling from low level processing to realistic 3D building rooftop modeling. In the element clustering step, building-labeled point clouds are clustered into homogeneous groups by applying height similarity and plane similarity. Based on segmented clusters, linear modeling cues including outer boundaries, intersection lines, and step lines are extracted. Topology elements among the modeling cues are recovered by the Binary Space Partitioning (BSP technique. The regularity of the building rooftop model is achieved by an implicit regularization process in the framework of Minimum Description Length (MDL combined with Hypothesize and Test (HAT. The parameters governing the MDL optimization are automatically estimated based on Min-Max optimization and Entropy-based weighting method. The performance of the proposed method is tested over the International

Implicit Regularization for Reconstructing 3D Building Rooftop Models Using Airborne LiDAR Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Jung, Jaewook; Jwa, Yoonseok; Sohn, Gunho

2017-03-19

With rapid urbanization, highly accurate and semantically rich virtualization of building assets in 3D become more critical for supporting various applications, including urban planning, emergency response and location-based services. Many research efforts have been conducted to automatically reconstruct building models at city-scale from remotely sensed data. However, developing a fully-automated photogrammetric computer vision system enabling the massive generation of highly accurate building models still remains a challenging task. One the most challenging task for 3D building model reconstruction is to regularize the noises introduced in the boundary of building object retrieved from a raw data with lack of knowledge on its true shape. This paper proposes a data-driven modeling approach to reconstruct 3D rooftop models at city-scale from airborne laser scanning (ALS) data. The focus of the proposed method is to implicitly derive the shape regularity of 3D building rooftops from given noisy information of building boundary in a progressive manner. This study covers a full chain of 3D building modeling from low level processing to realistic 3D building rooftop modeling. In the element clustering step, building-labeled point clouds are clustered into homogeneous groups by applying height similarity and plane similarity. Based on segmented clusters, linear modeling cues including outer boundaries, intersection lines, and step lines are extracted. Topology elements among the modeling cues are recovered by the Binary Space Partitioning (BSP) technique. The regularity of the building rooftop model is achieved by an implicit regularization process in the framework of Minimum Description Length (MDL) combined with Hypothesize and Test (HAT). The parameters governing the MDL optimization are automatically estimated based on Min-Max optimization and Entropy-based weighting method. The performance of the proposed method is tested over the International Society for

Models for describing the thermal characteristics of building components

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jimenez, M.J.; Madsen, Henrik

2008-01-01

, for example. For the analysis of these tests, dynamic analysis models and methods are required. However, a wide variety of models and methods exists, and the problem of choosing the most appropriate approach for each particular case is a non-trivial and interdisciplinary task. Knowledge of a large family....... The characteristics of each type of model are highlighted. Some available software tools for each of the methods described will be mentioned. A case study also demonstrating the difference between linear and nonlinear models is considered....... of these approaches may therefore be very useful for selecting a suitable approach for each particular case. This paper presents an overview of models that can be applied for modelling the thermal characteristics of buildings and building components using data from outdoor testing. The choice of approach depends...

Modeling and simulation of the energy use in an occupied residential building in cold climate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Olofsson, Thomas; Mahlia, T.M.I.

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► An overview of the energy-characteristics based on illustrations in graphical figures. ► Figures to support identification and validation energy refurbishment measures. ► Emphasizing energy efficiency measures in early stage of building design. -- Abstract: In order to reduce the energy use in the building sector there is a demand for tools that can identify significant building energy performance parameters. In the work introduced in this paper presents a methodology, based on a simulation module and graphical figures, for interactive investigations of the building energy performance. The building energy use simulation program is called TEKLA and is using EN832 with an improved procedure in calculating the heat loss through the floor and the solar heat gain. The graphical figures are simple and are illustrating the savings based on retrofit measures and climate conditions. The accuracy of the TEKLA simulation was investigated on a typical single-family building in Sweden for a period of time in a space heating demand of relatively cold and mild climate. The model was found applicable for relative investigations. Further, the methodology was applied on a typical single family reference building. The climate data from three locations in Sweden were collected and a set of relevant measures were studied. The investigated examples illustrate how decisions in the early stages of the building design process can have decisive importance on the final building energy performance.

Comparative study of air conditioning systems with vapor compression chillers using the concept of green buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gutenberg da Silva Pereira

2015-10-01

Full Text Available This paper sets out to compare two different cooling systems that use vapor compression chillers for air conditioning environments. It was proposed to compare different operations in isolated and combined action operations. These operations are evaluated in the concepts of green buildings. A mathematical model was developed based on the principles of mass and energy conservation and complemented by various functions so as to determine the thermophysical properties and efficiencies of the compressors. The equations of the model were solved by the EES (Engineering Equation Solver program. The model evaluates the influence of the main HVAC operating parameters of the chilled water system when operating under three different configurations. The results showed that the system with a differentiated compression presents a COP equal to that of the system with screw chillers in the range  0-300 RTs, and a COP hat is on average 9% higher in the range 400-800 RTs.

Construction cost prediction model for conventional and sustainable college buildings in North America

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Othman Subhi Alshamrani

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The literature lacks in initial cost prediction models for college buildings, especially comparing costs of sustainable and conventional buildings. A multi-regression model was developed for conceptual initial cost estimation of conventional and sustainable college buildings in North America. RS Means was used to estimate the national average of construction costs for 2014, which was subsequently utilized to develop the model. The model could predict the initial cost per square feet with two structure types made of steel and concrete. The other predictor variables were building area, number of floors and floor height. The model was developed in three major stages, such as preliminary diagnostics on data quality, model development and validation. The developed model was successfully tested and validated with real-time data.

Large-scale building energy efficiency retrofit: Concept, model and control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Zhou; Wang, Bo; Xia, Xiaohua

2016-01-01

BEER (Building energy efficiency retrofit) projects are initiated in many nations and regions over the world. Existing studies of BEER focus on modeling and planning based on one building and one year period of retrofitting, which cannot be applied to certain large BEER projects with multiple buildings and multi-year retrofit. In this paper, the large-scale BEER problem is defined in a general TBT (time-building-technology) framework, which fits essential requirements of real-world projects. The large-scale BEER is newly studied in the control approach rather than the optimization approach commonly used before. Optimal control is proposed to design optimal retrofitting strategy in terms of maximal energy savings and maximal NPV (net present value). The designed strategy is dynamically changing on dimensions of time, building and technology. The TBT framework and the optimal control approach are verified in a large BEER project, and results indicate that promising performance of energy and cost savings can be achieved in the general TBT framework. - Highlights: • Energy efficiency retrofit of many buildings is studied. • A TBT (time-building-technology) framework is proposed. • The control system of the large-scale BEER is modeled. • The optimal retrofitting strategy is obtained.

Calculation of Environmental Conditions in NEK Intermediate Building Following HELB

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grgic, D.; Spalj, S.; Basic, I.

1998-01-01

The purpose of Equipment Qualification (EQ) in nuclear power plants is to ensure the capability of safety related equipment to perform its function on demand under postulated service conditions, including harsh accident environment (e.g. Loss of Coolant Accident - LOCA, High Energy Line Break - HELB). The determination of the EQ conditions and zones is one of the basic steps in the frame of the overall EQ project. The EQ parameters (temperature, pressure, relative humidity, chemical spray, submergence, radiation) should be defined for all locations of the plant containing equipment important to safety. This paper presents the calculation of thermohydraulic environmental parameters (pressure and temperature) inside Intermediate Building (IB) of Krsko NPP after the postulated HELB. The RELAP5/mod2 computer code was used for the determination of HELB mass and energy release and computer code GOTHIC was used to calculate pressure and temperature profiles inside NPP Krsko IB. (author)

Integration of inaccurate data into model building and uncertainty assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coleou, Thierry

1998-12-31

Model building can be seen as integrating numerous measurements and mapping through data points considered as exact. As the exact data set is usually sparse, using additional non-exact data improves the modelling and reduces the uncertainties. Several examples of non-exact data are discussed and a methodology to honor them in a single pass, along with the exact data is presented. This automatic procedure is valid for both ``base case`` model building and stochastic simulations for uncertainty analysis. 5 refs., 3 figs.

A procedure for Building Product Models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvam, Lars

1999-01-01

, easily adaptable concepts and methods from data modeling (object oriented analysis) and domain modeling (product modeling). The concepts are general and can be used for modeling all types of specifications in the different phases in the product life cycle. The modeling techniques presented have been......The application of product modeling in manufacturing companies raises the important question of how to model product knowledge in a comprehensible and efficient way. An important challenge is to qualify engineers to model and specify IT-systems (product models) to support their specification...... activities. A basic assumption is that engineers have to take the responsability for building product models to be used in their domain. To do that they must be able to carry out the modeling task on their own without any need for support from computer science experts. This paper presents a set of simple...

SEMI-AUTOMATIC BUILDING MODELS AND FAÇADE TEXTURE MAPPING FROM MOBILE PHONE IMAGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Jeong

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Research on 3D urban modelling has been actively carried out for a long time. Recently the need of 3D urban modelling research is increased rapidly due to improved geo-web services and popularized smart devices. Nowadays 3D urban models provided by, for example, Google Earth use aerial photos for 3D urban modelling but there are some limitations: immediate update for the change of building models is difficult, many buildings are without 3D model and texture, and large resources for maintaining and updating are inevitable. To resolve the limitations mentioned above, we propose a method for semi-automatic building modelling and façade texture mapping from mobile phone images and analyze the result of modelling with actual measurements. Our method consists of camera geometry estimation step, image matching step, and façade mapping step. Models generated from this method were compared with actual measurement value of real buildings. Ratios of edge length of models and measurements were compared. Result showed 5.8% average error of length ratio. Through this method, we could generate a simple building model with fine façade textures without expensive dedicated tools and dataset.

FIRST PRISMATIC BUILDING MODEL RECONSTRUCTION FROM TOMOSAR POINT CLOUDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Sun

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This paper demonstrates for the first time the potential of explicitly modelling the individual roof surfaces to reconstruct 3-D prismatic building models using spaceborne tomographic synthetic aperture radar (TomoSAR point clouds. The proposed approach is modular and works as follows: it first extracts the buildings via DSM generation and cutting-off the ground terrain. The DSM is smoothed using BM3D denoising method proposed in (Dabov et al., 2007 and a gradient map of the smoothed DSM is generated based on height jumps. Watershed segmentation is then adopted to oversegment the DSM into different regions. Subsequently, height and polygon complexity constrained merging is employed to refine (i.e., to reduce the retrieved number of roof segments. Coarse outline of each roof segment is then reconstructed and later refined using quadtree based regularization plus zig-zag line simplification scheme. Finally, height is associated to each refined roof segment to obtain the 3-D prismatic model of the building. The proposed approach is illustrated and validated over a large building (convention center in the city of Las Vegas using TomoSAR point clouds generated from a stack of 25 images using Tomo-GENESIS software developed at DLR.

Hybrid Building Performance Simulation Models for Industrial Energy Efficiency Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Smolek

2018-06-01

Full Text Available In the challenge of achieving environmental sustainability, industrial production plants, as large contributors to the overall energy demand of a country, are prime candidates for applying energy efficiency measures. A modelling approach using cubes is used to decompose a production facility into manageable modules. All aspects of the facility are considered, classified into the building, energy system, production and logistics. This approach leads to specific challenges for building performance simulations since all parts of the facility are highly interconnected. To meet this challenge, models for the building, thermal zones, energy converters and energy grids are presented and the interfaces to the production and logistics equipment are illustrated. The advantages and limitations of the chosen approach are discussed. In an example implementation, the feasibility of the approach and models is shown. Different scenarios are simulated to highlight the models and the results are compared.

Non-commutative standard model: model building

CERN Document Server

Chaichian, Masud; Presnajder, P

2003-01-01

A non-commutative version of the usual electro-weak theory is constructed. We discuss how to overcome the two major problems: (1) although we can have non-commutative U(n) (which we denote by U sub * (n)) gauge theory we cannot have non-commutative SU(n) and (2) the charges in non-commutative QED are quantized to just 0,+-1. We show how the latter problem with charge quantization, as well as with the gauge group, can be resolved by taking the U sub * (3) x U sub * (2) x U sub * (1) gauge group and reducing the extra U(1) factors in an appropriate way. Then we proceed with building the non-commutative version of the standard model by specifying the proper representations for the entire particle content of the theory, the gauge bosons, the fermions and Higgs. We also present the full action for the non-commutative standard model (NCSM). In addition, among several peculiar features of our model, we address the inherentCP violation and new neutrino interactions. (orig.)

Mental models of a water management system in a green building.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalantzis, Anastasia; Thatcher, Andrew; Sheridan, Craig

2016-11-01

This intergroup case study compared users' mental models with an expert design model of a water management system in a green building. The system incorporates a constructed wetland component and a rainwater collection pond that together recycle water for re-use in the building and its surroundings. The sample consisted of five building occupants and the cleaner (6 users) and two experts who were involved with the design of the water management system. Users' mental model descriptions and the experts' design model were derived from in-depth interviews combined with self-constructed (and verified) diagrams. Findings from the study suggest that there is considerable variability in the user mental models that could impact the efficient functioning of the water management system. Recommendations for improvements are discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

RESRAD-BUILD: A computer model for analyzing the radiological doses resulting from the remediation and occupancy of buildings contaminated with radioactive material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, C.; LePoire, D.J.; Jones, L.G.

1994-11-01

The RESRAD-BUILD computer code is a pathway analysis model designed to evaluate the potential radiological dose incurred by an individual who works or lives in a building contaminated with radioactive material. The transport of radioactive material inside the building from one compartment to another is calculated with an indoor air quality model. The air quality model considers the transport of radioactive dust particulates and radon progeny due to air exchange, deposition and resuspension, and radioactive decay and ingrowth. A single run of the RESRAD-BUILD code can model a building with up to: three compartments, 10 distinct source geometries, and 10 receptor locations. A shielding material can be specified between each source-receptor pair for external gamma dose calculations. Six exposure pathways are considered in the RESRAD-BUILD code: (1) external exposure directly from the source; (2) external exposure to materials deposited on the floor; (3) external exposure due to air submersion; (4) inhalation of airborne radioactive particulates; (5) inhalation of aerosol indoor radon progeny; and (6) inadvertent ingestion of radioactive material, either directly from the sources or from materials deposited on the surfaces of the building compartments

Modeling arson - An exercise in qualitative model building

Science.gov (United States)

Heineke, J. M.

1975-01-01

A detailed example is given of the role of von Neumann and Morgenstern's 1944 'expected utility theorem' (in the theory of games and economic behavior) in qualitative model building. Specifically, an arsonist's decision as to the amount of time to allocate to arson and related activities is modeled, and the responsiveness of this time allocation to changes in various policy parameters is examined. Both the activity modeled and the method of presentation are intended to provide an introduction to the scope and power of the expected utility theorem in modeling situations of 'choice under uncertainty'. The robustness of such a model is shown to vary inversely with the number of preference restrictions used in the analysis. The fewer the restrictions, the wider is the class of agents to which the model is applicable, and accordingly more confidence is put in the derived results. A methodological discussion on modeling human behavior is included.

Development of Tsunami Numerical Model Considering the Disaster Debris such as Cars, Ships and Collapsed Buildings

Science.gov (United States)

Kozono, Y.; Takahashi, T.; Sakuraba, M.; Nojima, K.

2016-12-01

A lot of debris by tsunami, such as cars, ships and collapsed buildings were generated in the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. It is useful for rescue and recovery after tsunami disaster to predict the amount and final position of disaster debris. The transport form of disaster debris varies as drifting, rolling and sliding. These transport forms need to be considered comprehensively in tsunami simulation. In this study, we focused on the following three points. Firstly, the numerical model considering various transport forms of disaster debris was developed. The proposed numerical model was compared with the hydraulic experiment by Okubo et al. (2004) in order to verify transport on the bottom surface such as rolling and sliding. Secondly, a numerical experiment considering transporting on the bottom surface and drifting was studied. Finally, the numerical model was applied for Kesennuma city where serious damage occurred by the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. In this model, the influence of disaster debris was considered as tsunami flow energy loss. The hydraulic experiments conducted in a water tank which was 10 m long by 30 cm wide. The gate confined water in a storage tank, and acted as a wave generator. A slope was set at downstream section. The initial position of a block (width: 3.2 cm, density: 1.55 g/cm3) assuming the disaster debris was placed in front of the slope. The proposed numerical model simulated well the maximum transport distance and the final stop position of the block. In the second numerical experiment, the conditions were the same as the hydraulic experiment, except for the density of the block. The density was set to various values (from 0.30 to 4.20 g/cm3). This model was able to estimate various transport forms including drifting and sliding. In the numerical simulation of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami, the condition of buildings was modeled as follows: (i)the resistance on the bottom using Manning roughness coefficient (conventional method), and (ii)structure of

Condition Assessment of the Timber Structures of a Century-Old Industrial Building Using a Nondestructive Inspection Procedure

Science.gov (United States)

Xiping Wang; Marko Teder; James Wacker

2013-01-01

This paper reports an in situ inspection project conducted on heavy timber structures of a century-old industrial building at a paper manufacturing facility. A nondestructive inspection procedure was employed to evaluate the true condition of the heavy timbers that serve as the main framing structure of the building. The on-site investigation involved monitoring of the...

Modeling Manpower and Equipment Productivity in Tall Building Construction Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Mudumbai Krishnaswamy, Parthasarathy; Rajiah, Murugasan; Vasan, Ramya

2017-12-01

Tall building construction projects involve two critical resources of manpower and equipment. Their usage, however, widely varies due to several factors affecting their productivity. Currently, no systematic study for estimating and increasing their productivity is available. What is prevalent is the use of empirical data, experience of similar projects and assumptions. As tall building projects are here to stay and increase, to meet the emerging demands in ever shrinking urban spaces, it is imperative to explore ways and means of scientific productivity models for basic construction activities: concrete, reinforcement, formwork, block work and plastering for the input of specific resources in a mixed environment of manpower and equipment usage. Data pertaining to 72 tall building projects in India were collected and analyzed. Then, suitable productivity estimation models were developed using multiple linear regression analysis and validated using independent field data. It is hoped that the models developed in the study will be useful for quantity surveyors, cost engineers and project managers to estimate productivity of resources in tall building projects.

Reconstructing building mass models from UAV images

KAUST Repository

Li, Minglei

2015-07-26

We present an automatic reconstruction pipeline for large scale urban scenes from aerial images captured by a camera mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle. Using state-of-the-art Structure from Motion and Multi-View Stereo algorithms, we first generate a dense point cloud from the aerial images. Based on the statistical analysis of the footprint grid of the buildings, the point cloud is classified into different categories (i.e., buildings, ground, trees, and others). Roof structures are extracted for each individual building using Markov random field optimization. Then, a contour refinement algorithm based on pivot point detection is utilized to refine the contour of patches. Finally, polygonal mesh models are extracted from the refined contours. Experiments on various scenes as well as comparisons with state-of-the-art reconstruction methods demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.

Effects of build parameters on linear wear loss in plastic part produced by fused deposition modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Mohamed, Omar Ahmed; Masood, Syed Hasan; Bhowmik, Jahar Lal

2017-07-01

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is one of the prominent additive manufacturing technologies for producing polymer products. FDM is a complex additive manufacturing process that can be influenced by many process conditions. The industrial demands required from the FDM process are increasing with higher level product functionality and properties. The functionality and performance of FDM manufactured parts are greatly influenced by the combination of many various FDM process parameters. Designers and researchers always pay attention to study the effects of FDM process parameters on different product functionalities and properties such as mechanical strength, surface quality, dimensional accuracy, build time and material consumption. However, very limited studies have been carried out to investigate and optimize the effect of FDM build parameters on wear performance. This study focuses on the effect of different build parameters on micro-structural and wear performance of FDM specimens using definitive screening design based quadratic model. This would reduce the cost and effort of additive manufacturing engineer to have a systematic approachto make decision among the manufacturing parameters to achieve the desired product quality.

Links Related to the Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model

Science.gov (United States)

The Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model (I-BEAM) is a guidance tool designed for use by building professionals and others interested in indoor air quality in commercial buildings.

Weather Correlations to Calculate Infiltration Rates for U. S. Commercial Building Energy Models.

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Lisa C; Quiles, Nelson Ojeda; Dols, W Stuart; Emmerich, Steven J

2018-01-01

As building envelope performance improves, a greater percentage of building energy loss will occur through envelope leakage. Although the energy impacts of infiltration on building energy use can be significant, current energy simulation software have limited ability to accurately account for envelope infiltration and the impacts of improved airtightness. This paper extends previous work by the National Institute of Standards and Technology that developed a set of EnergyPlus inputs for modeling infiltration in several commercial reference buildings using Chicago weather. The current work includes cities in seven additional climate zones and uses the updated versions of the prototype commercial building types developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the U. S. Department of Energy. Comparisons were made between the predicted infiltration rates using three representations of the commercial building types: PNNL EnergyPlus models, CONTAM models, and EnergyPlus models using the infiltration inputs developed in this paper. The newly developed infiltration inputs in EnergyPlus yielded average annual increases of 3 % and 8 % in the HVAC electrical and gas use, respectively, over the original infiltration inputs in the PNNL EnergyPlus models. When analyzing the benefits of building envelope airtightening, greater HVAC energy savings were predicted using the newly developed infiltration inputs in EnergyPlus compared with using the original infiltration inputs. These results indicate that the effects of infiltration on HVAC energy use can be significant and that infiltration can and should be better accounted for in whole-building energy models.

To Issue of Mathematical Management Methods Applied for Investment-Building Complex under Conditions of Economic Crisis

Science.gov (United States)

Novikova, V.; Nikolaeva, O.

2017-11-01

In the article the authors consider a cognitive management method of the investment-building complex in the crisis conditions. The factors influencing the choice of an investment strategy are studied, the basic lines of the activity in the field of crisis-management from a position of mathematical modelling are defined. The general approach to decision-making on investment in real assets on the basis of the discrete systems based on the optimum control theory is offered. With the use of a discrete maximum principle the task in view of the decision is found. The numerical algorithm to define the optimum control is formulated by investments. Analytical decisions for the case of constant profitability of the basic means are obtained.

Development and evaluation of a building integrated aquifer thermal storage model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bozkaya, Basar; Li, Rongling; Labeodan, Timilehin

2017-01-01

An aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) in combination with a heat pump is an excellent way to reduce the net energy usage of buildings. The use of ATES has been demonstrated to have the potential to provide a reduction of between 20 and 40% in the cooling and heating energy use of buildings. ATES...... systems are however a complex system to analyse as a number of ground conditions influence heat losses within the aquifer. ATES is also not confined from the sides and is therefore vulnerable to heat losses through conduction, advection and dispersion. The analyses of ATES system is even further...... complicated when the dynamic of a building is considered. When connected to a building, the temperature in the aquifer is influenced by the amount of heat exchange with the varying building load. Given the energy saving potentials of ATES systems in building operation, detailed understanding of the influence...

Lifting Wing in Constructing Tall Buildings —Aerodynamic Testing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ian Skelton

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This paper builds on previous research by the authors which determined the global state-of-the-art of constructing tall buildings by surveying the most active specialist tall building professionals around the globe. That research identified the effect of wind on tower cranes as a highly ranked, common critical issue in tall building construction. The research reported here presents a design for a “Lifting Wing,” a uniquely designed shroud which potentially allows the lifting of building materials by a tower crane in higher and more unstable wind conditions, thereby reducing delay on the programmed critical path of a tall building. Wind tunnel tests were undertaken to compare the aerodynamic performance of a scale model of a typical “brick-shaped” construction load (replicating a load profile most commonly lifted via a tower crane against the aerodynamic performance of the scale model of the Lifting Wing in a range of wind conditions. The data indicate that the Lifting Wing improves the aerodynamic performance by a factor of up to 50%.

Increasing security of supply: The search for stable models of financing for new nuclear build in the European Union

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heffron, Raphael James

2009-01-01

Full text: This research assesses models for financing of new nuclear build in European Union (EU) member states to find the most stable form. The countries examined in this study are France, the United Kingdom, Finland and Romania. The results attest that due to various historical, political, competition, and electricity market structural conditions Romania has emerged with the most secure and stable model for financing of new nuclear projects. This paper begins with an assessment of the effects on the nuclear sector from energy, environment and competition legislation in the EU. Then the political and economic climate of the afore mentioned EU member states is completed. Following this an overview of the market structure of the electricity sector in those respective countries is conducted. Then the key research on the models of financing of new nuclear build is explored, contrasted and analysed. The research concludes that there are four main models for financing new nuclear projects in Europe. Each model has transcended from different political and economic forces, and consequently each model has met with varied levels of success. Electricity market structures while operating to the same legal requirements, have been dissimilar in their evolution. The combination of the above factors has led to different models for financing new nuclear build. Upon further analysis it is concluded and demonstrated that the Romanian financing model is the most suitable and provides an example for any new nuclear build aspiring nations in the EU and beyond. (author)

Review of Development Survey of Phase Change Material Models in Building Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hussein J. Akeiber

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The application of phase change materials (PCMs in green buildings has been increasing rapidly. PCM applications in green buildings include several development models. This paper briefly surveys the recent research and development activities of PCM technology in building applications. Firstly, a basic description of phase change and their principles is provided; the classification and applications of PCMs are also included. Secondly, PCM models in buildings are reviewed and discussed according to the wall, roof, floor, and cooling systems. Finally, conclusions are presented based on the collected data.

Activity measurement and effective dose modelling of natural radionuclides in building material.

Science.gov (United States)

Maringer, F J; Baumgartner, A; Rechberger, F; Seidel, C; Stietka, M

2013-11-01

In this paper the assessment of natural radionuclides' activity concentration in building materials, calibration requirements and related indoor exposure dose models is presented. Particular attention is turned to specific improvements in low-level gamma-ray spectrometry to determine the activity concentration of necessary natural radionuclides in building materials with adequate measurement uncertainties. Different approaches for the modelling of the effective dose indoor due to external radiation resulted from natural radionuclides in building material and results of actual building material assessments are shown. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Growth, chamber building rate and reproduction time of Palaeonummulites venosus under natural conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kinoshita, Shunichi; Eder, Wolfgang; Wöger, Julia; Hohenegger, Johann; Briguglio, Antonino

2017-04-01

Investigations on Palaeonummulites venosus using the natural laboratory approach for determining chamber building rate, test diameter increase rate, reproduction time and longevity is based on the decomposition of monthly obtained frequency distributions based on chamber number and test diameter into normal-distributed components. The shift of the component parameters 'mean' and 'standard deviation' during the investigation period of 15 months was used to calculate Michaelis-Menten functions applied to estimate the averaged chamber building rate and diameter increase rate under natural conditions. The individual dates of birth were estimated using the inverse averaged chamber building rate and the inverse diameter increase rate fitted by the individual chamber number or the individual test diameter at the sampling date. Distributions of frequencies and densities (i.e. frequency divided by sediment weight) based on chamber building rate and diameter increase rate resulted both in a continuous reproduction through the year with two peaks, the stronger in May /June determined as the beginning of the summer generation (generation1) and the weaker in November determined as the beginning of the winter generation (generation 2). This reproduction scheme explains the existence of small and large specimens in the same sample. Longevity, calculated as the maximum difference in days between the individual's birth date and the sampling date seems to be round about one year, obtained by both estimations based on the chamber building rate and the diameter increase rate.

Fine modeling of energy exchanges between buildings and urban atmosphere

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Daviau-Pellegrin, Noelie

2016-01-01

This thesis work is about the effect of buildings on the urban atmosphere and more precisely the energetic exchanges that take place between these two systems. In order to model more finely the thermal effects of buildings on the atmospheric flows in simulations run under the CFD software Code-Saturne, we proceed to couple this tool with the building model BuildSysPro. This library is run under Dymola and can generate matrices describing the building thermal properties that can be used outside this software. In order to carry out the coupling, we use these matrices in a code that allows the building thermal calculations and the CFD to exchange their results. After a review about the physical phenomena and the existing models, we explain the interactions between the atmosphere and the urban elements, especially buildings. The latter can impact the air flows dynamically, as they act as obstacles, and thermally, through their surface temperatures. At first, we analyse the data obtained from the measurement campaign EM2PAU that we use in order to validate the coupled model. EM2PAU was carried out in Nantes in 2011 and represents a canyon street with two rows of four containers. Its distinctive feature lies in the simultaneous measurements of the air and wall temperatures as well as the wind speeds with anemometers located on a 10 m-high mast for the reference wind and on six locations in the canyon. This aims for studying the thermal influence of buildings on the air flows. Then the numerical simulations of the air flows in EM2PAU is carried out with different methods that allow us to calculate or impose the surface temperature we use for each of the container walls. The first method consists in imposing their temperatures from the measurements. For each wall, we set the temperature to the surface temperature that was measured during the EM2PAU campaign. The second method involves imposing the outdoor air temperature that was measured at a given time to all the

Integrated Urban System and Energy Consumption Model: Residential Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rocco Papa

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This paper describes a segment of research conducted within the project PON 04a2_E Smart Energy Master for the energetic government of the territory conducted by the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environment Engineering, University of Naples "Federico II".  In particular, this article is part of the study carried out for the definition of the comprehension/interpretation model that correlates buildings, city’s activities and users’ behaviour in order to promote energy savings. In detail, this segment of the research wants to define the residential variables to be used in the model. For this purpose a knowledge framework at international level has been defined, to estimate the energy requirements of residential buildings and the identification of a set of parameters, whose variation has a significant influence on the energy consumption of residential buildings.

Age-dependent reliability model considering effects of maintenance and working conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martorell, Sebastian; Sanchez, Ana; Serradell, Vicente

1999-01-01

Nowadays, there is some doubt about building new nuclear power plants (NPPs). Instead, there is a growing interest in analyzing the possibility to extend current NPP operation, where life management programs play an important role. The evolution of the NPP safety depends on the evolution of the reliability of its safety components, which, in turn, is a function of their age along the NPP operational life. In this paper, a new age-dependent reliability model is presented, which includes parameters related to surveillance and maintenance effectiveness and working conditions of the equipment, both environmental and operational. This model may be used to support NPP life management and life extension programs, by improving or optimizing surveillance and maintenance tasks using risk and cost models based on such an age-dependent reliability model. The results of the sensitivity study in the example application show that the selection of the most appropriate maintenance strategy would directly depend on the previous parameters. Then, very important differences are expected to appear under certain circumstances, particularly, in comparison with other models that do not consider maintenance effectiveness and working conditions simultaneously

INLUX-DBR - A calculation code to calculate indoor natural illuminance inside buildings under various sky conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ferraro, V.; Igawa, N.; Marinelli, V.

2010-01-01

A calculation code, named INLUX-DBR, is presented, which is a modified version of INLUX code, able to predict the illuminance distribution on the inside surfaces of a room with six walls and a window, and on the work plane. At each desired instant the code solves the system of the illuminance equations of each surface element, characterized by the latter's reflection coefficient and its view factors toward the other elements. In the model implemented in the code, the sky-diffuse luminance distribution, the sun beam light and the light reflected from the ground toward the room are considered. The code was validated by comparing the calculated values of illuminance with the experimental values measured inside a scale model (1:5) of a building room, in various sky conditions of overcast, clear and intermediate days. The validation is performed using the sky luminance data measured by a sky scanner and the measured beam illuminance of the sun as input data. A comparative analysis of some of the well-known calculation models of sky luminance, namely Perez, Igawa and CIE models was also carried out, comparing the code predictions and the measured values of inside illuminance in the scale model.

A Study on Development of a Cost Optimal and Energy Saving Building Model: Focused on Industrial Building

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hye Yeon Kim

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This study suggests an optimization method for the life cycle cost (LCC in an economic feasibility analysis when applying energy saving techniques in the early design stage of a building. Literature and previous studies were reviewed to select appropriate optimization and LCC analysis techniques. The energy simulation (Energy Plus and computational program (MATLAB were linked to provide an automated optimization process. From the results, it is suggested that this process could outline the cost optimization model with which it is possible to minimize the LCC. To aid in understanding the model, a case study on an industrial building was performed to outline the operations of the cost optimization model including energy savings. An energy optimization model was also presented to illustrate the need for the cost optimization model.

Building damage assessment from PolSAR data using texture parameters of statistical model

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Linlin; Liu, Xiuguo; Chen, Qihao; Yang, Shuai

2018-04-01

Accurate building damage assessment is essential in providing decision support for disaster relief and reconstruction. Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) has become one of the most effective means of building damage assessment, due to its all-day/all-weather ability and richer backscatter information of targets. However, intact buildings that are not parallel to the SAR flight pass (termed oriented buildings) and collapsed buildings share similar scattering mechanisms, both of which are dominated by volume scattering. This characteristic always leads to misjudgments between assessments of collapsed buildings and oriented buildings from PolSAR data. Because the collapsed buildings and the intact buildings (whether oriented or parallel buildings) have different textures, a novel building damage assessment method is proposed in this study to address this problem by introducing texture parameters of statistical models. First, the logarithms of the estimated texture parameters of different statistical models are taken as a new texture feature to describe the collapse of the buildings. Second, the collapsed buildings and intact buildings are distinguished using an appropriate threshold. Then, the building blocks are classified into three levels based on the building block collapse rate. Moreover, this paper also discusses the capability for performing damage assessment using texture parameters from different statistical models or using different estimators. The RADARSAT-2 and ALOS-1 PolSAR images are used to present and analyze the performance of the proposed method. The results show that using the texture parameters avoids the problem of confusing collapsed and oriented buildings and improves the assessment accuracy. The results assessed by using the K/G0 distribution texture parameters estimated based on the second moment obtain the highest extraction accuracies. For the RADARSAT-2 and ALOS-1 data, the overall accuracy (OA) for these three types of

Enhancements to ASHRAE Standard 90.1 Prototype Building Models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goel, Supriya; Athalye, Rahul A.; Wang, Weimin; Zhang, Jian; Rosenberg, Michael I.; Xie, YuLong; Hart, Philip R.; Mendon, Vrushali V.

2014-04-16

This report focuses on enhancements to prototype building models used to determine the energy impact of various versions of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1. Since the last publication of the prototype building models, PNNL has made numerous enhancements to the original prototype models compliant with the 2004, 2007, and 2010 editions of Standard 90.1. Those enhancements are described here and were made for several reasons: (1) to change or improve prototype design assumptions; (2) to improve the simulation accuracy; (3) to improve the simulation infrastructure; and (4) to add additional detail to the models needed to capture certain energy impacts from Standard 90.1 improvements. These enhancements impact simulated prototype energy use, and consequently impact the savings estimated from edition to edition of Standard 90.1.

Optimum Application of Thermal Factors to Artificial Neural Network Models for Improvement of Control Performance in Double Skin-Enveloped Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kyung-Il Chin

2013-08-01

Full Text Available This study proposes an artificial neural network (ANN-based thermal control method for buildings with double skin envelopes that has rational relationships between the ANN model input and output. The relationship between the indoor air temperature and surrounding environmental factors was investigated based on field measurement data from an actual building. The results imply that the indoor temperature was not significantly influenced by vertical solar irradiance, but by the outdoor and cavity temperature. Accordingly, a new ANN model developed in this study excluded solar irradiance as an input variable for predicting the future indoor temperature. The structure and learning method of this new ANN model was optimized, followed by the performance tests of a variety of internal and external envelope opening strategies for the heating and cooling seasons. The performance tests revealed that the optimized ANN-based logic yielded better temperature conditions than the non-ANN based logic. This ANN-based logic increased overall comfortable periods and decreased the frequency of overshoots and undershoots out of the thermal comfort range. The ANN model proved that it has the potential to be successfully applied in the temperature control logic for double skin-enveloped buildings. The ANN model, which was proposed in this study, effectively predicted future indoor temperatures for the diverse opening strategies. The ANN-based logic optimally determined the operation of heating and cooling systems as well as opening conditions for the double skin envelopes.

Greening Existing Buildings in Contemporary Iraqi Urban Reality/ Virtual Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saba Jabar Neama Al-Khafaji

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The approach of greening existing buildings, is an urgent necessity, because the greening operation provides the speed and optimal efficiency in the environmental performance, as well as keeping up with the global green architecture revolution. Therefore, greening existing buildings in Iraq is important for trends towards renewable energies, because of what the country went through economic conditions and crises and wars which kept the country away from what took place globally in this issue. The research problem is: insufficient knowledge about the importance and the mechanism of the greening of existing buildings, including its environmental and economic dimensions, by rationalization of energy consumption and preserving the environment. The research objective is: clarifying the importance of greening existing buildings environmentally and economically, providing a virtual experience for greening the presidency building of Baghdad University, through advanced computer program. The main conclusions is: there is difference representing by reducing the disbursed thermal loads amount for cooling in summer and heating in winter through the use of computerized program (DesignBuilder and that after the implementation of greening operations on the building envelope, which confirms its effectiveness in raising the energy performance efficiency inside the building. Hence, the importance of the application of greening existing buildings approach in Iraq, to bring back Iraqi architecture to environmental and local track proper.

Occupant performance and building energy consumption with different philosophies of determining acceptable thermal conditions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toftum, Jørn; Andersen, Rune Vinther; Jensen, Kasper Lynge

2009-01-01

Based on building energy and indoor environment simulations, this study uses a recently developed method relying on Bayesian Network theory to estimate and compare the consequences for occupant performance and energy consumption of applying temperature criteria set according to the adaptive model...... configurations, especially in the tropical climate, the estimated performance differed only modestly between configurations. However, energy consumption was always lower in buildings without mechanical cooling, particularly so in the tropical climate. The findings indicate that determining acceptable indoor...... thermal environments with the adaptive comfort model may result in significant energy savings and at the same time will not have large consequences for the mental performance of occupants....

From Point Clouds to Building Information Models: 3D Semi-Automatic Reconstruction of Indoors of Existing Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hélène Macher

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The creation of as-built Building Information Models requires the acquisition of the as-is state of existing buildings. Laser scanners are widely used to achieve this goal since they permit to collect information about object geometry in form of point clouds and provide a large amount of accurate data in a very fast way and with a high level of details. Unfortunately, the scan-to-BIM (Building Information Model process remains currently largely a manual process which is time consuming and error-prone. In this paper, a semi-automatic approach is presented for the 3D reconstruction of indoors of existing buildings from point clouds. Several segmentations are performed so that point clouds corresponding to grounds, ceilings and walls are extracted. Based on these point clouds, walls and slabs of buildings are reconstructed and described in the IFC format in order to be integrated into BIM software. The assessment of the approach is proposed thanks to two datasets. The evaluation items are the degree of automation, the transferability of the approach and the geometric quality of results of the 3D reconstruction. Additionally, quality indexes are introduced to inspect the results in order to be able to detect potential errors of reconstruction.

Evaluation of Heating, Ventilation, and Air conditioning (HVAC System Performance in an Administrative Building in Tehran (Iran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Mari Oriyad

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: One of the factors influencing on indoor air quality of the buildings is performance of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. These systems supply clean and odorless air, with temperature, humidity, and air velocity within comfort ranges for the residents. The aim of this study was to evaluate performance HVAC system in an administrative building in Tehran. .Material and Method: A questionnaire, developed in their research was used to assess the building occupants’ perception about the performance of HVAC system. To evaluate the performance of HVAC systems, air velocities were measured in the diffusers using a thermal anemometer. Moreover, CO2 concentration, air temperature and relative humidity were measured in the whole floors of the building. Air distribution inside the building was evaluated using smoke test. .Results: Most of the studied people complained about the direction of airflow, thermal conditions and cigarette odor. The highest level of carbon dioxide was measured at 930 ppm inside the restaurant. The maximum and minimum air temperatures and relative humidity were measured 28.3-13.8° C and 28.4-23% respectively. Smoke test showed that the air distribution/direction wasn’t suitable in one third of air diffusers. .Conclusion: Improper air distribution / direction was the main problem with the studied HVAC system which could be corrected by adjusting and balancing of the system.

Aggregation Potentials for Buildings - Business Models of Demand Response and Virtual Power Plants

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ma, Zheng; Billanes, Joy Dalmacio; Jørgensen, Bo Nørregaard

2017-01-01

programs, national regulations and energy market structures strongly influence buildings’ participation in the aggregation market. Under the current Nordic market regulation, business model one is the most feasible one, and business model two faces more challenges due to regulation barriers and limited...... aggregation market with unclear incentives is still a challenge for buildings to participate in the aggregation market. However, few studies have investigated business models for building participation in the aggregation market. Therefore, this paper develops four business models for buildings to participate...

Issues of Application of Machine Learning Models for Virtual and Real-Life Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Young Min Kim

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The current Building Energy Performance Simulation (BEPS tools are based on first principles. For the correct use of BEPS tools, simulationists should have an in-depth understanding of building physics, numerical methods, control logics of building systems, etc. However, it takes significant time and effort to develop a first principles-based simulation model for existing buildings—mainly due to the laborious process of data gathering, uncertain inputs, model calibration, etc. Rather than resorting to an expert’s effort, a data-driven approach (so-called “inverse” approach has received growing attention for the simulation of existing buildings. This paper reports a cross-comparison of three popular machine learning models (Artificial Neural Network (ANN, Support Vector Machine (SVM, and Gaussian Process (GP for predicting a chiller’s energy consumption in a virtual and a real-life building. The predictions based on the three models are sufficiently accurate compared to the virtual and real measurements. This paper addresses the following issues for the successful development of machine learning models: reproducibility, selection of inputs, training period, outlying data obtained from the building energy management system (BEMS, and validation of the models. From the result of this comparative study, it was found that SVM has a disadvantage in computation time compared to ANN and GP. GP is the most sensitive to a training period among the three models.

Thermal models of buildings. Determination of temperatures, heating and cooling loads. Theories, models and computer programs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kaellblad, K

1998-05-01

The need to estimate indoor temperatures, heating or cooling load and energy requirements for buildings arises in many stages of a buildings life cycle, e.g. at the early layout stage, during the design of a building and for energy retrofitting planning. Other purposes are to meet the authorities requirements given in building codes. All these situations require good calculation methods. The main purpose of this report is to present the authors work with problems related to thermal models and calculation methods for determination of temperatures and heating or cooling loads in buildings. Thus the major part of the report deals with treatment of solar radiation in glazing systems, shading of solar and sky radiation and the computer program JULOTTA used to simulate the thermal behavior of rooms and buildings. Other parts of thermal models of buildings are more briefly discussed and included in order to give an overview of existing problems and available solutions. A brief presentation of how thermal models can be built up is also given and it is a hope that the report can be useful as an introduction to this part of building physics as well as during development of calculation methods and computer programs. The report may also serve as a help for the users of energy related programs. Independent of which method or program a user choose to work with it is his or her own responsibility to understand the limits of the tool, else wrong conclusions may be drawn from the results 52 refs, 22 figs, 4 tabs

Integration of Low Energy Technologies for Optimal Building and Space Conditioning Design

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

D.E. Fisher

2006-01-07

EnergyPlus is the DOE's newest building energy simulation engine. It was developed specifically to support the design of low energy building systems. This project focused on developing new low energy building simulation models for EnergyPlus, verifying and validating new and existing EnergyPlus models and transferring the new technology to the private sector. The project focused primarily on geothermal and radiant technologies, which are related by the fact that both are based on hydronic system design. As a result of this project eight peer reviewed journal and conference papers were added to the archival literature and five technical reports were published as M.S. theses and are available in the archival literature. In addition, several reports, including a trombe wall validation report were written for web publication. Thirteen new or significantly enhanced modules were added to the EnergyPlus source code and forty-two new or significantly enhanced sections were added to the EnergyPlus documentation as a result of this work. A low energy design guide was also developed as a pedagogical tool and is available for web publication. Finally several tools including a hybrid ground source heat pump optimization program and a geothermal heat pump parameter estimation tool were developed for research and design and are available for web publication.

Groundwater flow modelling under ice sheet conditions. Scoping calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jaquet, O.; Namar, R.; Jansson, P.

2010-10-01

The potential impact of long-term climate changes has to be evaluated with respect to repository performance and safety. In particular, glacial periods of advancing and retreating ice sheet and prolonged permafrost conditions are likely to occur over the repository site. The growth and decay of ice sheets and the associated distribution of permafrost will affect the groundwater flow field and its composition. As large changes may take place, the understanding of groundwater flow patterns in connection to glaciations is an important issue for the geological disposal at long term. During a glacial period, the performance of the repository could be weakened by some of the following conditions and associated processes: - Maximum pressure at repository depth (canister failure). - Maximum permafrost depth (canister failure, buffer function). - Concentration of groundwater oxygen (canister corrosion). - Groundwater salinity (buffer stability). - Glacially induced earthquakes (canister failure). Therefore, the GAP project aims at understanding key hydrogeological issues as well as answering specific questions: - Regional groundwater flow system under ice sheet conditions. - Flow and infiltration conditions at the ice sheet bed. - Penetration depth of glacial meltwater into the bedrock. - Water chemical composition at repository depth in presence of glacial effects. - Role of the taliks, located in front of the ice sheet, likely to act as potential discharge zones of deep groundwater flow. - Influence of permafrost distribution on the groundwater flow system in relation to build-up and thawing periods. - Consequences of glacially induced earthquakes on the groundwater flow system. Some answers will be provided by the field data and investigations; the integration of the information and the dynamic characterisation of the key processes will be obtained using numerical modelling. Since most of the data are not yet available, some scoping calculations are performed using the

Groundwater flow modelling under ice sheet conditions. Scoping calculations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jaquet, O.; Namar, R. (In2Earth Modelling Ltd (Switzerland)); Jansson, P. (Dept. of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm Univ., Stockholm (Sweden))

2010-10-15

The potential impact of long-term climate changes has to be evaluated with respect to repository performance and safety. In particular, glacial periods of advancing and retreating ice sheet and prolonged permafrost conditions are likely to occur over the repository site. The growth and decay of ice sheets and the associated distribution of permafrost will affect the groundwater flow field and its composition. As large changes may take place, the understanding of groundwater flow patterns in connection to glaciations is an important issue for the geological disposal at long term. During a glacial period, the performance of the repository could be weakened by some of the following conditions and associated processes: - Maximum pressure at repository depth (canister failure). - Maximum permafrost depth (canister failure, buffer function). - Concentration of groundwater oxygen (canister corrosion). - Groundwater salinity (buffer stability). - Glacially induced earthquakes (canister failure). Therefore, the GAP project aims at understanding key hydrogeological issues as well as answering specific questions: - Regional groundwater flow system under ice sheet conditions. - Flow and infiltration conditions at the ice sheet bed. - Penetration depth of glacial meltwater into the bedrock. - Water chemical composition at repository depth in presence of glacial effects. - Role of the taliks, located in front of the ice sheet, likely to act as potential discharge zones of deep groundwater flow. - Influence of permafrost distribution on the groundwater flow system in relation to build-up and thawing periods. - Consequences of glacially induced earthquakes on the groundwater flow system. Some answers will be provided by the field data and investigations; the integration of the information and the dynamic characterisation of the key processes will be obtained using numerical modelling. Since most of the data are not yet available, some scoping calculations are performed using the

A study of the passive cooling potential in simulated building in Latvian climate conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Prozuments, A.; Vanags, I.; Borodinecs, A.; Millers, R.; Tumanova, K.

2017-10-01

In this paper authors point out that overheating in buildings during summer season is a major problem in moderate and cold climates, not only in warm climate zones. Mostly caused by solar heat gains, especially in buildings with large glazed areas overheating is a common problem in recently constructed low-energy buildings. At the same time, comfort demands are increasing. While heating loads can be decreased by improving the insulation of the building envelope, cooling loads are also affecting total energy demand. Passive cooling solutions allow reduction of heat gains, and thus reducing the cooling loads. There is a significant night cooling potential with low temperatures at night during summer in moderate and cold climates. Night cooling is based on cooling of buildings thermal mass during the night and heat accumulation during the day. This approach allows to provide thermal comfort, reducing cooling loads during the day. Authors investigate thermal comfort requirements and causes for discomfort. Passive cooling methods are described. The simulation modeling is carried out to analyze impact of constructions and building orientation on energy consumption for cooling using the IDA-ICE software. Main criteria for simulation analysis are energy consumption for cooling and thermal comfort.

Novel Methods to Explore Building Energy Sensitivity to Climate and Heat Waves Using PNNL's BEND Model

Science.gov (United States)

Burleyson, C. D.; Voisin, N.; Taylor, T.; Xie, Y.; Kraucunas, I.

2017-12-01

The DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been developing the Building ENergy Demand (BEND) model to simulate energy usage in residential and commercial buildings responding to changes in weather, climate, population, and building technologies. At its core, BEND is a mechanism to aggregate EnergyPlus simulations of a large number of individual buildings with a diversity of characteristics over large spatial scales. We have completed a series of experiments to explore methods to calibrate the BEND model, measure its ability to capture interannual variability in energy demand due to weather using simulations of two distinct weather years, and understand the sensitivity to the number and location of weather stations used to force the model. The use of weather from "representative cities" reduces computational costs, but often fails to capture spatial heterogeneity that may be important for simulations aimed at understanding how building stocks respond to a changing climate (Fig. 1). We quantify the potential reduction in temperature and load biases from using an increasing number of weather stations across the western U.S., ranging from 8 to roughly 150. Using 8 stations results in an average absolute summertime temperature bias of 4.0°C. The mean absolute bias drops to 1.5°C using all available stations. Temperature biases of this magnitude translate to absolute summertime mean simulated load biases as high as 13.8%. Additionally, using only 8 representative weather stations can lead to a 20-40% bias of peak building loads under heat wave or cold snap conditions, a significant error for capacity expansion planners who may rely on these types of simulations. This analysis suggests that using 4 stations per climate zone may be sufficient for most purposes. Our novel approach, which requires no new EnergyPlus simulations, could be useful to other researchers designing or calibrating aggregate building model simulations - particularly those looking at

Building energy analysis tool

Science.gov (United States)

Brackney, Larry; Parker, Andrew; Long, Nicholas; Metzger, Ian; Dean, Jesse; Lisell, Lars

2016-04-12

A building energy analysis system includes a building component library configured to store a plurality of building components, a modeling tool configured to access the building component library and create a building model of a building under analysis using building spatial data and using selected building components of the plurality of building components stored in the building component library, a building analysis engine configured to operate the building model and generate a baseline energy model of the building under analysis and further configured to apply one or more energy conservation measures to the baseline energy model in order to generate one or more corresponding optimized energy models, and a recommendation tool configured to assess the one or more optimized energy models against the baseline energy model and generate recommendations for substitute building components or modifications.

Transactive Control of Commercial Buildings for Demand Response

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hao, He; Corbin, Charles D.; Kalsi, Karanjit; Pratt, Robert G.

2017-01-01

Transactive control is a type of distributed control strategy that uses market mechanism to engage self-interested responsive loads to achieve power balance in the electrical power grid. In this paper, we propose a transactive control approach of commercial building Heating, Ventilation, and Air- Conditioning (HVAC) systems for demand response. We first describe the system models, and identify their model parameters using data collected from Systems Engineering Building (SEB) located on our Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) campus. We next present a transactive control market structure for commercial building HVAC system, and describe its agent bidding and market clearing strategies. Several case studies are performed in a simulation environment using Building Control Virtual Test Bed (BCVTB) and calibrated SEB EnergyPlus model. We show that the proposed transactive control approach is very effective at peak clipping, load shifting, and strategic conservation for commercial building HVAC systems.

A Graph-Based Approach for 3D Building Model Reconstruction from Airborne LiDAR Point Clouds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bin Wu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available 3D building model reconstruction is of great importance for environmental and urban applications. Airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR is a very useful data source for acquiring detailed geometric and topological information of building objects. In this study, we employed a graph-based method based on hierarchical structure analysis of building contours derived from LiDAR data to reconstruct urban building models. The proposed approach first uses a graph theory-based localized contour tree method to represent the topological structure of buildings, then separates the buildings into different parts by analyzing their topological relationships, and finally reconstructs the building model by integrating all the individual models established through the bipartite graph matching process. Our approach provides a more complete topological and geometrical description of building contours than existing approaches. We evaluated the proposed method by applying it to the Lujiazui region in Shanghai, China, a complex and large urban scene with various types of buildings. The results revealed that complex buildings could be reconstructed successfully with a mean modeling error of 0.32 m. Our proposed method offers a promising solution for 3D building model reconstruction from airborne LiDAR point clouds.

Modelling classroom conditions with different boundary conditions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marbjerg, Gerd Høy; Jeong, Cheol-Ho; Brunskog, Jonas

2014-01-01

A model that combines image source modelling and acoustical radiosity with complex boundary condition, thus including phase shifts on reflection has been developed. The model is called PARISM (Phased Acoustical Radiosity and Image Source Model). It has been developed in order to be able to model...

Development of Automated Procedures to Generate Reference Building Models for ASHRAE Standard 90.1 and India’s Building Energy Code and Implementation in OpenStudio

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parker, Andrew [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Haves, Philip [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Jegi, Subhash [International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (India); Garg, Vishal [International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (India); Ravache, Baptiste [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2017-09-14

This paper describes a software system for automatically generating a reference (baseline) building energy model from the proposed (as-designed) building energy model. This system is built using the OpenStudio Software Development Kit (SDK) and is designed to operate on building energy models in the OpenStudio file format.

Building Science Identity in Disadvantaged Teenage Girls using an Apprenticeship Model

Science.gov (United States)

Pettit, E. C.; Conner, L.; Tzou, C.

2015-12-01

Expeditionary science differs from laboratory science in that expeditionary science teams conduct investigations in conditions that are often physically and socially, as well as intellectually, challenging. Team members live in close quarters for extended periods of time, team building and leadership affect the scientific process, and research tools are limited to what is available on site. Girls on Ice is an expeditionary science experience primarily for disadvantaged girls; it fully immerses girls in a mini scientific expedition to study alpine, glacierized environments. In addition to mentoring the girls through conducting their own scientific research, we encourage awareness and discussion of different sociocultural perspectives on the relation between the natural world, science, and society. The experience aligns closely with the apprenticeship model of learning, which can be effective in enhancing identification with science. Using a mixed-methods approach, we show that the Girls on Ice model helps girls (1) increase their interest and engagement in science and build a stronger science identity, (2) develop confidence, importantly they develop a combined physical and intellectual confidence; (3) engage in authentic scientific thinking, including critical thinking and problem solving; and (4) enhance leadership self-confidence. We discuss these results in a learning sciences framework, which posits that learning is inseparable from the social and physical contexts in which it takes place.

Building models for marketing decisions : Past, present and future

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leeflang, PSH; Wittink, DR

We review five eras of model building in marketing, with special emphasis on the fourth and the fifth eras, the present and the future. At many firms managers now routinely use model-based results for marketing decisions. Given an increasing number of successful applications, the demand for models

The Dutch sustainable building policy: A model for developing countries?