Preparation and provision of building information for planning within existing built contexts
(2004)
A prerequisite for planning within existing built contexts is precise information regarding the building substance, its construction and materials, possible damages and any modifications and additions that may have occurred during its lifetime. Using the information collected in a building survey the user should be able to “explore” the building in virtual form, as well as to assess the information contained with regard to a specific planning aspect. The functionality provided by an information module should cover several levels of information provision ranging from ‘simple retrieval’ of relevant information to the analysis and assessment of stored information with regard to particular question sets. Through the provision of basic functionality at an elementary level and the ability to extend this using plug-ins, the system concept of an open extendable system is upheld. Using this modular approach, different levels of information provision can be provided as required during the planning process.
Limit state design of hybrid structures with meshless methods using mathematical optimization
(2003)
The revitalization of existing structures belongs to the frequently tasks in urban reconstruction processes. The adaptation for new requirements will commonly affect substantial changes in the general configuration of structures. The resulting revitalized structures are characterized by a hybrid design, where old and new, identical or diverse materials and members will be coupled in different ways. In the planning stage the treatment of these systems leads to application of complex and hybrid mechanical models respectively. High performance numerical instruments have to be applied for solving not only analysis but also targeted design problems. Because of the hybrid character of mechanical models in revitalization planning processes the use of hybrid technologies is advantageous. In this paper mixed domain technique will be used for connecting EFG and FE. The models derived will be adopted for design purposes of non-linear loaded hybrid structures. The investigations show a good adaptability of the meshless methods to the design of hybrid structures by using optimization strategies. With this method the advantages of both finite element and meshless methods can be utilized most suitable. With the property of a minimum amount of unknowns by maintaining an adequate quality of the results the application of mixed finite element and meshless methods is a promising alternative to traditional methods in structural analysis and optimization.