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Modern distributed engineering applications are based on complex systems consisting of various subsystems that are connected through the Internet. Communication and collaboration within an entire system requires reliable and efficient data exchange between the subsystems. Middleware developed within the web evolution during the past years provides reliable and efficient data exchange for web applications, which can be adopted for solving the data exchange problems in distributed engineering applications. This paper presents a generic approach for reliable and efficient data exchange between engineering devices using existing middleware known from web applications. Different existing middleware is examined with respect to the suitability in engineering applications. In this paper, a suitable middleware is shown and a prototype implementation simulating distributed wind farm control is presented and validated using several performance measurements.
The Carbon journal is pleased to introduce a themed collection of recent articles in the area of computational carbon nanoscience. This virtual special issue was assembled from previously published Carbon articles by Guest Editors Quan Wang and Behrouz Arash, and can be accessed as a set in the special issue section of the journal website homepage: www.journals.elsevier.com/carbon. The article below by our guest editors serves as an introduction to this virtual special issue, and also a commentary on the growing role of computation as a tool to understand the synthesis and properties of carbon nanoforms and their behavior in composite materials.
Nanostructured materials are extensively applied in many fields of material science for new industrial applications, particularly in the automotive, aerospace industry due to their exceptional physical and mechanical properties. Experimental testing of nanomaterials is expensive, timeconsuming,challenging and sometimes unfeasible. Therefore,computational simulations have been employed as alternative method to predict macroscopic material properties. The behavior of polymeric nanocomposites (PNCs) are highly complex.
The origins of macroscopic material properties reside in the properties and interactions taking place on finer scales. It is therefore essential to use multiscale modeling strategy to properly account for all large length and time scales associated with these material systems, which across many orders of magnitude. Numerous multiscale models of PNCs have been established, however, most of them connect only two scales. There are a few multiscale models for PNCs bridging four length scales (nano-, micro-, meso- and macro-scales). In addition, nanomaterials are stochastic in nature and the prediction of macroscopic mechanical properties are influenced by many factors such as fine-scale features. The predicted mechanical properties obtained by traditional approaches significantly deviate from the measured values in experiments due to neglecting uncertainty of material features. This discrepancy is indicated that the effective macroscopic properties of materials are highly sensitive to various sources of uncertainty, such as loading and boundary conditions and material characteristics, etc., while very few stochastic multiscale models for PNCs have been developed. Therefore, it is essential to construct PNC models within the framework of stochastic modeling and quantify the stochastic effect of the input parameters on the macroscopic mechanical properties of those materials.
This study aims to develop computational models at four length scales (nano-, micro-, meso- and macro-scales) and hierarchical upscaling approaches bridging length scales from nano- to macro-scales. A framework for uncertainty quantification (UQ) applied to predict the mechanical properties
of the PNCs in dependence of material features at different scales is studied. Sensitivity and uncertainty analysis are of great helps in quantifying the effect of input parameters, considering both main and interaction effects, on the mechanical properties of the PNCs. To achieve this major
goal, the following tasks are carried out:
At nano-scale, molecular dynamics (MD) were used to investigate deformation mechanism of glassy amorphous polyethylene (PE) in dependence of temperature and strain rate. Steered molecular dynamics (SMD)were also employed to investigate interfacial characteristic of the PNCs.
At mico-scale, we developed an atomistic-based continuum model represented by a representative volume element (RVE) in which the SWNT’s properties and the SWNT/polymer interphase are modeled at nano-scale, the surrounding polymer matrix is modeled by solid elements. Then, a two-parameter model was employed at meso-scale. A hierarchical multiscale approach has been developed to obtain the structure-property relations at one length scale and transfer the effect to the higher length
scales. In particular, we homogenized the RVE into an equivalent fiber.
The equivalent fiber was then employed in a micromechanical analysis (i.e. Mori-Tanaka model) to predict the effective macroscopic properties of the PNC. Furthermore, an averaging homogenization process was also used to obtain the effective stiffness of the PCN at meso-scale.
Stochastic modeling and uncertainty quantification consist of the following ingredients:
- Simple random sampling, Latin hypercube sampling, Sobol’ quasirandom sequences, Iman and Conover’s method (inducing correlation in Latin hypercube sampling) are employed to generate independent and dependent sample data, respectively.
- Surrogate models, such as polynomial regression, moving least squares (MLS), hybrid method combining polynomial regression and MLS, Kriging regression, and penalized spline regression, are employed as an approximation of a mechanical model. The advantage of the surrogate models is the high computational efficiency and robust as they can be constructed from a limited amount of available data.
- Global sensitivity analysis (SA) methods, such as variance-based methods for models with independent and dependent input parameters, Fourier-based techniques for performing variance-based methods and partial derivatives, elementary effects in the context of local SA, are used to quantify the effects of input parameters and their interactions on the mechanical properties of the PNCs. A bootstrap technique is used to assess the robustness of the global SA methods with respect to their performance.
In addition, the probability distribution of mechanical properties are determined by using the probability plot method. The upper and lower bounds of the predicted Young’s modulus according to 95 % prediction intervals were provided.
The above-mentioned methods study on the behaviour of intact materials. Novel numerical methods such as a node-based smoothed extended finite element method (NS-XFEM) and an edge-based smoothed phantom node method (ES-Phantom node) were developed for fracture problems. These methods can be used to account for crack at macro-scale for future works. The predicted mechanical properties were validated and verified. They show good agreement with previous experimental and simulations results.
What is nowadays called (classic) Clifford analysis consists in the establishment of a function theory for functions belonging to the kernel of the Dirac operator. While such functions can very well describe problems of a particle with internal SU(2)-symmetries, higher order symmetries are beyond this theory. Although many modifications (such as Yang-Mills theory) were suggested over the years they could not address the principal problem, the need of a n-fold factorization of the d’Alembert operator. In this paper we present the basic tools of a fractional function theory in higher dimensions, for the transport operator (alpha = 1/2 ), by means of a fractional correspondence to the Weyl relations via fractional Riemann-Liouville derivatives. A Fischer decomposition, fractional Euler and Gamma operators, monogenic projection, and basic fractional homogeneous powers are constructed.
The stress state of a piecewise-homogeneous elastic body, which has a semi-infinite crack along the interface, under in-plane and antiplane loads is considered. One of the crack edges is reinforced by a rigid patch plate on a finite interval adjacent to the crack tip. The crack edges are loaded with specified stresses. The body is stretched at infinity by specified stresses. External forces with a given principal vector and moment act on the patch plate. The problem reduces to a Riemann-Hilbert boundary-value matrix problem with a piecewise-constant coefficient for two complex potentials in the plane case and for one in the antiplane case. The complex potentials are found explicitly using a Gaussian hypergeometric function. The stress state of the body close to the ends of the patch plate, one of which is also simultaneously the crack tip, is investigated. Stress intensity factors near the singular points are determined.
In this paper we introduce LUCI, a Lightweight Urban Calculation Interchange system, designed to bring the advantages of a calculation and content co-ordination system to small planning and design groups by the means of an open source middle-ware. The middle-ware focuses on problems typical to urban planning and therefore features a geo-data repository as well as a job runtime administration, to coordinate simulation models and its multiple views. The described system architecture is accompanied by two exemplary use cases that have been used to test and further develop our concepts and implementations.
In this paper we introduce LUCI, a Lightweight Urban Calculation Interchange system, designed to bring the advantages of a calculation and content co-ordination system to small planning and design groups by the means of an open source middle-ware. The middle-ware focuses on problems typical to urban planning and therefore features a geo-data repository as well as a job runtime administration, to coordinate simulation models and its multiple views. The described system architecture is accompanied by two exemplary use cases that have been used to test and further develop our concepts and implementations.
From the design experiences of arch dams in the past, it has significant practical value to carry out the shape optimization of arch dams, which can fully make use of material characteristics and reduce the cost of constructions. Suitable variables need to be chosen to formulate the objective function, e.g. to minimize the total volume of the arch dam. Additionally a series of constraints are derived and a reasonable and convenient penalty function has been formed, which can easily enforce the characteristics of constraints and optimal design. For the optimization method, a Genetic Algorithm is adopted to perform a global search. Simultaneously, ANSYS is used to do the mechanical analysis under the coupling of thermal and hydraulic loads. One of the constraints of the newly designed dam is to fulfill requirements on the structural safety. Therefore, a reliability analysis is applied to offer a good decision supporting for matters concerning predictions of both safety and service life of the arch dam. By this, the key factors which would influence the stability and safety of arch dam significantly can be acquired, and supply a good way to take preventive measures to prolong ate the service life of an arch dam and enhances the safety of structure.
Communities in discourse and space. Towards a spatial dialectic in gated residential developments
(2015)
This research projects deals with the discoursivity of spatial production.
By looking at contemporary residential development in the city of Istanbul, I will examine the reciprocity of the material production of space on one hand, and social discourses on the other, in order to make a contribution to how physical space can be used as a source of research in urban studies. In real estate marketing social discourses are used as a source of reference for place branding or identity design. Branding concepts therefore relate to how social groups imagine their position or future position in society, imaginaries that are continuously influenced and changed by social dynamics within the city but also from the outside. How such urban identities are formed and it what way they relate to the urban environment is crucial to a wide spectrum of social and cultural science. The constitutive role urban space attains has been described and analysed in much detail. Such scrutiny however has yet to be applied to the visual and communicative forms of engagement, the build environment partakes in the formation and change of social discourses.
The sizing of simple resonators like guitar strings or laser mirrors is directly connected to the wavelength and represents no complex optimisation problem. This is not the case with liquid-filled acoustic resonators of non-trivial geometries, where several masses and stiffnesses of the structure and the fluid have to fit together. This creates a scenario of many competing and interacting resonances varying in relative strength and frequency when design parameters change. Hence, the resonator design involves a parameter-tuning problem with many local optima. As its solution evolutionary algorithms (EA) coupled to a forced-harmonic FE simulation are presented. A new hybrid EA is proposed and compared to two state-of-theart EAs based on selected test problems. The motivating background is the search for better resonators suitable for sonofusion experiments where extreme states of matter are sought in collapsing cavitation bubbles.
Superplasticizers are utilized both to improve the fluidity during the placement and to reduce the water content of concretes. Both effects have also an impact on the properties of the hardened concrete. As a side effect the presence of superplasticizers affects the strength development of concretes that is strongly retarded. This may lead to an ecomomical drawback of the concrete manufacturing. The present work is aimed at gaining insights on the causes of the retarding effect of superplasticizers on the hydration of Portland cement. In order to simplify the complex interactions occurring during the hydration of Portland cement the majority of the work focuses on the interaction of superplasticizer and tricalcium silicate (Ca3SiO5 or C3S, the main compound of Portland cement clinker). The tests are performed in three main parts accompanied by methods as for example isothermal conduction calorimetry, electrical conductivity, Electron Microscopy, ICP-OES, TOC, as well as Analytical Ultracentrifugation.
In the first main part and based on the interaction of cations and anionic charges of polymers, the interactions between calcium ions and superplasticizers are investigated. As a main effect calcium ions are complexed by the functional groups of the polymers (carboxy, sulfonic). Calcium ions may be both dissolved in the aqueous phase and a constitute of particle interfaces. Besides these effects it is furthermore shown that superplasticizers induce the formation of nanoscaled particles which are dispersed in the aqueous phase (cluster formation). Analogous to recent findings in the field of biomineralization, it is reasonable to assume that these nanoparticles influence the crystal growth by their assembly process.
Based on the assumption that superplasticizers hinder either or both dissolution and precipitation and by that retard the cement hydration, the impact on separate reactions is investigated. On experiments that address the solubility of C-S-H phases and portlandite, it is shown that complexation of calcium ions in the aqueous phase by functional groups of polymers increases the solubility of portlandite. Contrary, in case of C-S-H solubility the complexation of calcium ions in solution leads to decrease of the calcium ion concentration in the aqueous phase. These effects are explained by differences in adsorption of polymers on C-S-H phases and portlandite. It is proposed that adsorption is stronger on C-S-H phases compared to portlandite due to the increased specific surface area of C-S-H phases. Following that, it is claimed that before polymers are able to adsorb on C-S-H phases the functional groups must be screened by calcium ions in the aqueous phase. It is further shown that data regarding the impact of superplasticizers on the unconstrained dissolution rate of C3S does not provide a clear relation to the overall retarding effect occurring during the hydration of C3S. Both increased and decreased dissolution rate with respect to the reference sample are detected. If the complexation capability of the superplasticizers is considered then also a reduced dissolution rate of C3S is determined. Despite the fact that the global hydration process is accelerated, the addition of calcite leads to a slower dissolution rate. Thus, a hindered unconstrained dissolution of C3S as possibly cause for the retarding effect still remains open for discussion. In the last section of this part, the pure crystallization of hydrate phases (C-S-H phases, portlandite) is fathomed. Results clearly show that superplasticizers prolong the induction time and modify the rate of crystal growth during pure crystallization in particular due to the complexation of ions in solution. But this effect is insufficient to account for the overall retarding effect. Further important factors are the blocking of crystal growth faces by adsorbed polymers and the dispersion of nanoscaled particles which hinders their agglomeration in order to build up crystals.
In the last main part of the work, the previously gathered results are utilized in order to investigate hydration kinetics. During hydration, dissolution and precipitation occur in parallel. Thereby, special attention is laid on the ion composition of the aqueous phase of C3S pastes and suspensions in order to determine the rate limiting step. All in all it is concluded that the retarding effect of superplasticizers on the hydration of tricalcium silicate is based on the retardation of crystallization of hydrate phases (C-S-H phases and portlandite). Thereby, the two effects complexation of calcium ions on surfaces and stabilization of nanoscaled particles are of major importance. These mechanisms may partly be compensated by template performance and increase in solubility by complexation of ions in solution. The decreased dissolution rate of C3S by the presence of superplasticizers during the in parallel occuring hydration process can only be assessed indirectly by means of the development of the ion concentrations in the aqueous phase (reaction path). Whether this observation is the cause or the consequence within the dissolution-precipitation process and therefore accounts for the retarding effect remains a topic for further investigations.
Besides these results it is shown that superplasticizers can be associated chemically with inhibitors because they reduce the frequency factor to end the induction period. Because the activation energy is widely unaffected it is shown that the basic reaction mechanism sustain. Furthermore, a method was developed which permits for the first time the determination of ion concentrations in the aqueous phase of C3S pastes in-situ. It is shown that during the C3S hydration the ion concentration in the aqueous phase is developed correspondingly to the heat release rate (calorimetry). The method permits the differentiation of the acceleration period in three stages. It is emphasized that crystallization of the product phases of C3S hydration, namely C-S-H phases and portlandite, are responsible for the end of the induction period.
IFC-BASED MONITORING INFORMATION MODELING FOR DATA MANAGEMENT IN STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING
(2015)
This conceptual paper discusses opportunities and challenges towards the digital representation of structural health monitoring systems using the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) standard. State-of-the-art sensor nodes, collecting structural and environmental data from civil infrastructure systems, are capable of processing and analyzing the data sets directly on-board the nodes. Structural health monitoring (SHM) based on sensor nodes that possess so called “on-chip intelligence” is, in this study, referred to as “intelligent SHM”, and the infrastructure system being equipped with an intelligent SHM system is referred to as “intelligent infrastructure”. Although intelligent SHM will continue to grow, it is not possible, on a well-defined formalism, to digitally represent information about sensors, about the overall SHM system, and about the monitoring strategies being implemented (“monitoring-related information”). Based on a review of available SHM regulations and guidelines as well as existing sensor models and sensor modeling languages, this conceptual paper investigates how to digitally represent monitoring-related information in a semantic model. With the Industry Foundation Classes, there exists an open standard for the digital representation of building information; however, it is not possible to represent monitoring-related information using the IFC object model. This paper proposes a conceptual approach for extending the current IFC object model in order to include monitoring-related information. Taking civil infrastructure systems as an illustrative example, it becomes possible to adequately represent, process, and exchange monitoring-related information throughout the whole life cycle of civil infrastructure systems, which is referred to as monitoring information modeling (MIM). However, since this paper is conceptual, additional research efforts are required to further investigate, implement, and validate the proposed concepts and methods.
Der vorliegende Text beschreibt die intensive Erforschung von Wabenplatten aus Papierwerkstoffen, die durch Faltprozesse neue räumliche Zustände einnehmen können und somit ihr ursprüngliches Anwendungsspektrum erweitern. Die gezeigten Lösungsansätze bewegen sich dabei im Spannungsfeld von Architektur und Ingenieurbau, denn die gefalteten Bauteile sind nicht nur äußerst tragfähig sondern besitzen auch eine ästhetische Form. Die entwickelten Verfahren und Konstruktionen werden auf einem hohen architektonischen Niveau präsentiert und mit einfachen ingenieurtechnischen Methoden verifiziert. Zur Lösungsfindung werden geometrische Verfahren ebenso angewendet wie konstruktive Faustformeln und Recherchen aus Architektur und Forschung.
Der Fokus der Arbeit liegt auf der Untersuchung von Faltungen in Wabenplatten. Während der Auseinandersetzung mit der Thematik erschienen jedoch viele weitere Aspekte als sehr interessant und bearbeitungswürdig. Als theoretische Grundlage dieser Arbeit werden deshalb die geschichtliche Entwicklung und die gesellschaftliche Bedeutung von Papier und Papierwerkstoffen analysiert und deren Produktionsprozesse beleuchtet. Diese Vorgehensweise ermöglicht eine Einordnung des Potentials und der Bedeutung des Werkstoffs Papier. Der Kontext der Arbeit wird dadurch gestärkt und führt zu interessanten zukünftigen Forschungsansätzen.
Intensive Untersuchungen widmen sich der geometrischen Bestimmung von Faltungen in Wabenplatten aus Papierwerkstoffen sowie deren Manifestation als konstruktive Bauteile. Auch die statischen Eigenschaften der Elemente und ihr Konstruktionspotential werden erforscht und aufbereitet. Wichtige Impulse aus Forschung und Technik fließen in die Recherche der Arbeit ein und erlauben die Verortung der Ergebnisse im architektonischen Kontext. Versuchsreihen und Materialstudien an Prototypen belegen die Ergebnisse virtueller und rechnerischer Studien. Konzepte zur parametrischen Berechnung und Visualisierung der Forschungsergebnisse werden präsentiert und zeigen zukunftsfähige Planungshilfen für die Industrie auf. Etliche Testreihen zu unterschiedlichsten Abdichtungskonzepten führen zur Realisierung eines sehenswerten Experimentalbaus. Er erlaubt die dauerhafte Untersuchung der entwickelten Bauteile unter realistischen Bedingungen und bestätigt deren Leistungsfähigkeit. Dadurch wird nicht nur ein dauerhaftes Monitoring und eine Evaluierung der Leistungsdaten möglich sondern es wird auch der sichtbare Beweis erbracht, dass mit Papierwerkstoffen effiziente und hochwertige Architekturen zu realisieren sind, welche das enorme gestalterische Potential von gefalteten Wabenplatten ausnutzen.
Generell hat sich im Forschungsprojekt insbesondere durch die Gespräche mit den Hochschulvertretern bestätigt, dass für qualitativ hochwertige Lehre und Forschung qualitativ hochwertige Flächen in ausreichendem Umfang notwendig sind.
Ein Ziel der Forschungsarbeit ist die Entwicklung von Modellen zur Allokation und Steuerung von Flächenressourcen in Hochschulen. Ausgehend von Darstellungen und Erfahrungen für die Flächensteuerung aus Unternehmen, anderen Bereichen der öffentlichen Verwaltung und Forschungseinrichtungen wurden mögliche Steuerungsverfahren für Hochschulen untersucht. Es wurde ein Steuerungsmodell für Hochschulen entwickelt, das auf die hochschulinternen und die extern wirksamen Rahmenbedingungen reagiert.
Die hochschulinterne Flächenallokation wird zum einen maßgeblich von externen Rahmen-bedingungen und zum zweiten von internen Prozessen, Abläufen und Strukturen beeinflusst. Die Kenntnis dieser Bedingungen wird als Voraussetzung für die Benennung von Erfolgsfak-toren für die Implementation neuer Steuerungsmodelle angenommen. Analysiert wurden daher die liegenschaftspolitischen und die organisatorischen Rahmenbedingungen sowie die steuerungsrelevanten Eigenschaften der Flächen selber.
Die Bau-Ausstellung zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts oder „Die Schwierigkeit zu wohnen“, so lautet der Titel der Arbeit und legt damit ihren Fokus offen. Sie betrachtet ein um 1900 aufkommendes Ausstellungsphänomen in seinen ersten Dekaden; in einer Zeit, in der das Wohnen problematisiert wurde.
Der Praxis des Wohnens ist Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts seine Selbstverständlichkeit abgesprochen worden. Die Bau-Ausstellung wird als ein Symptom dieses Verlusts interpretiert und zugleich als Versuch, ihm entgegenzuwirken. Statt sie innerdisziplinär als eine architekturgeschichtliche Episode der Moderne rein positivistisch zu beschreiben, legt die vorliegende Arbeit im Typus der Bau-Ausstellung eine weit reichende Problematik frei, die kulturphilosophische ebenso wie medientheoretische Dimensionen hat: Inwieweit lässt sich das Wohnen überhaupt ausstellen? Wie kann man eine alltägliche Praxis, die kaum eine Definition erlaubt, zeigen? Den Umgang mit dieser Aporie untersucht die Arbeit.
As human thought was developing, likewise, the technology used for illumination was growing. But a haul through history, reviewing its pages and analyzing it, inherently brings up old and new question, like: Is it possible to alter negatively the image of historic buildings and monuments through inadequate lighting to the degree of distorting the perception that people have of the work? and if so, what are the causes that generate it? Do the light designers take into consideration criteria to protect not only historic buildings and monuments, but also the environment? What are the consequences that may generate the inadequate lighting of urban heritage to the environment? What are the factors to consider for a proper illumination of urban heritage? The answers to these questions will help lay the foundation for proper illumination of the urban heritage, avoiding at the maximum the light pollution and the effects that it generates, seeking a balance and harmonious reconciliation between the technology, urban heritage and environment, taking as a framework and the case study the urban heritage of a city from the colonial era in southern Mexico, with pre-Hispanic roots and where today you can still see through its streets and buildings an atmosphere of mysticism reflection of their folklore and traditions, this city is known as Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas.
The Laguerre polynomials appear naturally in many branches of pure and applied mathematics and mathematical physics. Debnath introduced the Laguerre transform and derived some of its properties. He also discussed the applications in study of heat conduction and to the oscillations of a very long and heavy chain with variable tension. An explicit boundedness for some class of Laguerre integral transforms will be present.
In photogrammetry and computer vision the trifocal tensor is used to describe the geometric relation between projections of points in three views. In this paper we analyze the stability and accuracy of the metric trifocal tensor for calibrated cameras. Since a minimal parameterization of the metric trifocal tensor is challenging, the additional constraints of the interior orientation are applied to the well-known projective 6-point and 7-point algorithms for three images. The experimental results show that the linear 7-point algorithm fails for some noise-free degenerated cases, whereas the minimal 6-point algorithm seems to be competitive even with realistic noise.
This thesis presents new interactive visualization techniques and systems intended to support users with real-world decisions such as selecting a product from a large variety of similar offerings, finding appropriate wording as a non-native speaker, and assessing an alleged case of plagiarism.
The Product Explorer is a significantly improved interactive Parallel Coordinates display for facilitating the product selection process in cases where many attributes and numerous alternatives have to be considered. A novel visual representation for categorical and ordered data with only few occurring values, the so-called extended areas, in combination with cubic curves for connecting the parallel axes, are crucial for providing an effective overview of the entire dataset and to facilitate the tracing of individual products. The visual query interface supports users in quickly narrowing down the product search to a small subset or even a single product. The scalability of the approach towards a large number of attributes and products is enhanced by the possibility of setting some constraints on final attributes and, therefore, reducing the number of considered attributes and data items. Furthermore, an attribute repository allows users to focus on the most important attributes at first and to bring in additional criteria for product selection later in the decision process. A user study confirmed that the Product Explorer is indeed an excellent tool for its intended purpose for casual users.
The Wordgraph is a layered graph visualization for the interactive exploration of search results for complex keywords-in-context queries. The system relies on the Netspeak web service and is designed to support non-native speakers in finding customary phrases. Uncertainties about the commonness of phrases are expressed with the help of wildcard-based queries. The visualization presents the alternatives for the wildcards in a multi-column layout: one column per wildcard with the other query fragments in between. The Wordgraph visualization displays the sorted results for all wildcards at once by appropriately arranging the words of each column. A user study confirmed that this is a significant advantage over simple textual result lists. Furthermore, visual interfaces to filter, navigate, and expand the graph allow interactive refinement and expansion of wildcard-containing queries.
Furthermore, this thesis presents an advanced visual analysis tool for assessing and presenting alleged cases of plagiarism and provides a three-level approach for exploring the so-called finding spots in their context. The overview shows the relationship of the entire suspicious document to the set of source documents. An intermediate glyph-based view reveals the structural and textual differences and similarities of a set of finding spots and their corresponding source text fragments. Eventually, the actual fragments of the finding spot can be shown in a side-by-side view with a novel structured wrapping of both the source, as well as the suspicious text. The three different levels of detail are tied together by versatile navigation and selection operations. Reviews with plagiarism experts confirm that this tool can effectively support their workflow and provides a significant improvement over existing static visualizations for assessing and presenting plagiarism cases.
The three main contributions of this research have a lot in common aside from being carefully designed and scientifically grounded solutions to real-world decision problems. The first two visualizations facilitate the decision for a single possibility out of many alternatives, whereas the latter ones deal with text at varying levels of detail. All visual representations are clearly structured based on horizontal and vertical layers contained in a single view and they all employ edges for depicting the most important relationships between attributes, words, or different levels of detail. A detailed analysis considering the context of the established decision-making literature reveals that important steps of common decision models are well-supported by the three visualization systems presented in this thesis.
Media anthropology is a new and interdisciplinary field of research with very different subjects and methods that seems to be already heavily informed by a comparatively narrow understanding of media as mass media (e.g. TV, Internet, social web, etc.). Therefore, most theories in this field, at least implicitly, employ a hierarchical and often dichotomic preconception of the two poles of media-human relations, by analysing the operationalities and ontologies of the human and the media independently from one another. This article deviates from this line of thought by advocating an expanded, symmetrical and relational understanding of the terms media and human, taking them as always already intermingled facets of a broader dynamic configuration. Starting from a consideration of the historically powerful, yet overlooked media of the so-called habitat diorama, the heuristic concept of “anthropomediality” is to be developed. Eventually, this relational approach may open up a new, interesting field for interrogation of (media-)anthropological analysis in general.
The article presents preliminary results and qualitative analysis obtained from the doctoral research provisory entitled “How do Brazilian ‘battlers’ reside?”, which is in progress at the Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus Univer-sity Weimar. It critically discusses the contradictions of the production of residences in Brazil made by an emerging so-cial group, lately called the Brazilian new middle class. For the last ten years, a number of government policies have provoked a general improvement of the purchasing power of the poor. Between those who completely depend on the government to survive and the upper middle class, there is a wide (about 100 million people) and economically stable lower middle group, which has found its own ways of dealing with its demand for housing. The conventional models of planning, building and buying are not suitable for their technical, financial and personal needs. Therefore, they are con-currently planners, constructors and residents, building and renovating their own properties themselves, but still with very limited education and technical knowledge and restricted access to good building materials and constructive ele-ments, formal technicians, architects or engineers. On the one hand, the result is an informal and more or less autono-mous self-production, with all sorts of technical problems and very interesting and creative spatial solutions to every-day domestic situations. On the other hand, the repercussions for urban space are questionable: although basic infrastructure conditions have improved, building densities are high and green areas are few. Lower middle class neigh-bourhoods present a restricted collective everyday life. They look like storage spaces for manpower; people who live to work in order to be able to consume—and build—what they could not before. One question is, to what extent the lat-est economic rise of Brazil has really resulted in social development for lower middle income families in the private sphere regarding their residences, and in the collective sphere, regarding the neighbourhoods they inhabit and the ur-ban space in general.
This study contributes to the identification of coupled THM constitutive model parameters via back analysis against information-rich experiments. A sampling based back analysis approach is proposed comprising both the model parameter identification and the assessment of the reliability of identified model parameters. The results obtained in the context of buffer elements indicate that sensitive parameter estimates generally obey the normal distribution. According to the sensitivity of the parameters and the probability distribution of the samples we can provide confidence intervals for the estimated parameters and thus allow a qualitative estimation on the identified parameters which are in future work used as inputs for prognosis computations of buffer elements. These elements play e.g. an important role in the design of nuclear waste repositories.
This thesis applies the theory of \psi-hyperholomorphic functions dened in R^3 with values in the set of paravectors, which is identified with the Eucledian space R^3, to tackle some problems in theory and practice: geometric mapping properties, additive decompositions of harmonic functions and applications in the theory of linear elasticity.
For decades in Germany, historical research on dictatorial urban design in the first half of the 20th century focused on the National Socialist period. Studies on the urban design practices of other dictatorships remained an exception. This has changed. Meanwhile, the urban production practices of the Mussolini, Stalin, Salazar, Hitler and Franco dictatorships have become the subject of comprehensive research projects. Recently, a research group that studies dictatorial urban design in 20th century Europe has emerged at the Bauhaus-Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur und der Planung. The group is already able to refer to various research results.
Part of the research group’s self-conception is the assumption that the urban design practices of the named dictatorships can only be properly understood from a European perspective. The dictatorships influenced one another substantially. Furthermore, the specificities of the practices of each dictatorship can only be discerned if one can compare them to those of the other dictatorships. This approach requires strict adherence to the research methods of planning history and urban design theory. Meanwhile, these methods must be opened
to include those of general historical studies.
With this symposium, the research group aims to further qualify this European perspective. The aim is to pursue an inventory of the various national historiographies on the topic of “urban design and dictatorship”. This inventory should offer an overview on the general national level of historical research on urban design as well as on the level of particular urban design projects, persons or topics.
The symposium took place in Weimar, November 21-22, 2013. It was organized by Harald Bodenschatz, Piero Sassi and Max Welch Guerra and funded by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).
Low-skilled labor makes a significant part of the construction sector, performing daily production tasks that do not require specific technical knowledge or confirmed skills. Today, construction market demands increasing skill levels. Many jobs that were once considered to be undertaken by low or un-skilled labor, now demand some kind of formal skills. The jobs that require low skilled labor are continually decreasing due to technological advancement and globalization. Jobs that previously required little or no training now require skilful people to perform the tasks appropriately. The study aims at ameliorating employability of less skilled manpower by finding ways to instruct them for performing constructions tasks. A review of exiting task instruction methodologies in construction and the underlying gaps within them warrants an appropriate way to train and instruct low skilled workers for the tasks in construction. The idea is to ensure the required quality of construction with technological and didactic aids seeming particularly purposeful to prepare potential workers for the tasks in construction without exposing them to existing communication barriers. A BIM based technology is considered promising along with the integration of visual directives/animations to elaborate the construction tasks scheduled to be carried on site.
The aim of this study was to investigate the optimization of the strength development of quaternary cements with 50 % clinker by a variation of the particle size distribution of the components GGBFS, fly ash and limestone powder.
By balancing the overall PSD of the cement by using unprocessed fly ash and coarse limestone powder in combination with a very fine GGBFS, the water demand of the resulting quaternary cements remained unaltered, while the compressive strength of the cements was increased significantly after 7d, 28 and 56d. As can be expected, the quaternary cement with 30 wt.% of the fine slag exhibited a stronger strength increase (about 18 % after 28 d) than the cements with only 20 wt.% slag (about 10% after 28d).
This article presents the Rigid Finite Element Method in the calculation of reinforced concrete beam deflection with cracks. Initially, this method was used in the shipbuilding industry. Later, it was adapted in the homogeneous calculations of the bar structures. In this method, rigid mass discs serve as an element model. In the flat layout, three generalized coordinates (two translational and one rotational) correspond to each disc. These discs are connected by elastic ties. The genuine idea is to take into account a discrete crack in the Rigid Finite Element Method. It consists in the suitable reduction of the rigidity in rotational ties located in the spots, where cracks occurred. The susceptibility of this tie results from the flexural deformability of the element and the occurrence of the crack. As part of the numerical analyses, the influence of cracks on the total deflection of beams was determined. Furthermore, the results of the calculations were compared to the results of the experiment. Overestimations of the calculated deflections against the measured deflections were found. The article specifies the size of the overestimation and describes its causes.
Gemäß dem Regelwerk für Betonstraßen muss für zweischichtige Betonfahrbahndecken derselbe Zement in Ober- und Unterbeton verwendet werden. Weiterhin ist die Anrechnung von Flugasche auf den w/z-Wert nicht gestattet. Durch eine flexiblere Handhabung der Bindemittel könnten sich Vorteile für die Betonbauweise ergeben. So könnte z.B. der stärker durch Frost beanspruchte Oberbeton mit CEM I hergestellt werden, während Zemente mit höheren Hüttensandgehalten nur im Unterbeton angewendet werden. Im Unterbeton könnten dann Gesteinskörnungen eingesetzt werden, die in einer herkömmlichen CEM I-Rezeptur als AKR-kritisch eingestuft würden.
Anhand von AKR-Performance-Prüfungen konnte die hohe Wirksamkeit hüttensandhaltiger Zemente sowie auch von Flugasche auf die AKR-Verminderung aufgezeigt werden. Schon mit einem CEM II/B-S wurden AKR-kritische Rezepturen in den unkritischen Bereich verschoben. Der Frost-Tausalz-Widerstand der Betone wurde bei hohen Gehalten an Hüttensand bzw. Hüttensand + Flugasche verringert, bewegte sich aber in jedem Fall noch im günstigen Bereich. Um eine Beeinträchtigung der baupraktischen Umsetzbarkeit zu vermeiden, sollte sich die Festigkeitsentwicklung von Ober- und Unterbeton im jungen Alter nicht zu stark unterscheiden. Modellberechnungen zur Festlegung einer Mindestfestigkeit für die frühe Belastung sind derzeit noch in Bearbeitung.
We conducted extensive molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the thermal conductivity of polycrystalline hexagonal boron-nitride (h-BN) films. To this aim, we constructed large atomistic models of polycrystalline h-BN sheets with random and uniform grain configuration. By performing equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) simulations, we investigated the influence of the average grain size on the thermal conductivity of polycrystalline h-BN films at various temperatures. Using the EMD results, we constructed finite element models of polycrystalline h-BN sheets to probe the thermal conductivity of samples with larger grain sizes. Our multiscale investigations not only provide a general viewpoint regarding the heat conduction in h-BN films but also propose that polycrystalline h-BN sheets present high thermal conductivity comparable to monocrystalline sheets.
In this paper, we present an empirical approach for objective and quantitative benchmarking of optimization algorithms with respect to characteristics induced by the forward calculation. Due to the professional background of the authors, this benchmarking strategy is illustrated on a selection of search methods in regard to expected characteristics of geotechnical parameter back calculation problems. Starting from brief introduction into the approach employed, a strategy for optimization algorithm benchmarking is introduced. The benchmarking utilizes statistical tests carried out on well-known test functions superposed with perturbations, both chosen to mimic objective function topologies found for geotechnical objective function topologies. Here, the moved axis parallel hyper-ellipsoid test function and the generalized Ackley test function in conjunction with an adjustable quantity of objective function topology roughness and fraction of failing forward calculations is analyzed. In total, results for 5 optimization algorithms are presented, compared and discussed.
Etwa ein Viertel des gesamten Endenergieverbrauchs (26%) in Deutschland entfällt auf den Wohnungssektor, wodurch dieser Sektor einen erheblichen Anteil am möglichen Einsparpotenzial an Energie hat. Im Hinblick auf das Klimaschutzziel der Europäischen Union, die Energieeffizienz im Vergleich zu 1990 um 20% zu erhöhen, stellt sich daher die Frage, welche Einsparpotenziale es im Wohnungssektor tatsächlich gibt und wie diese quantifiziert werden können. In dieser Arbeit wird der Einfluss der Parameter, die den Endenergieverbrauch beeinflussen, mit Hilfe einer Sensitivitätsanalyse bestimmt. Die Ergebnisse der Sensitivitätsanalyse zeigen, dass die einflussreichsten Parameter auf den Endenergieverbrauch der Innentemperaturbedarf, die Länge der Heizperiode, die Außentemperatur (Gradtagzahl) und die Anzahl der Wohnungen sind. Dies sind Variablen, die nicht durch Verordnungen reguliert werden können. Der einzige Parameter, der regulierbar ist und einen bedeutenden Einfluss auf den Endenergieverbrauch hat, ist der Nutzungsgrad der Anlagen/Geräte für Raumwärme, Warmwasser und Kochen (sowie zu einem geringen Teil der Wirkungsgrad der eingesetzten Beleuchtung). Zur Quantifizierung des Energieeinsparpotentials im deutschen Wohnungssektor bezüglich des Nutzungsgrades wurden in dieser Arbeit Daten zur Bestimmung der langfristigen Entwicklung (Zeitraum 1990-2010) des Nutzungsgrades von Anlagen und Geräten analysiert. Mit verschiedenen Angaben aus der Literatur und mit Hilfe von Sättigungskurven wurde die Entwicklung der Nutzugsgrade der Anlagen/Geräte entsprechend der Energiequellen zwischen 1990 und 2010 ermittelt. Die erhaltenden Sättigungskurven ermöglichen die Bestimmung der Entwicklung des Nutzenergieverbrauchs im deutschen Wohnungssektor. Hierbei wurde festgestellt, dass die Differenz zwischen Nutzenergieverbrauch und Endenergieverbrauch einen Rückgang von 12 % im betrachtenden Zeitraum verzeichnete und dass das Energieeinsparpotenzial in Abhängigkeit von der Energiequelle beträchtlich variieren kann (um derzeit mehr als 35%-Punkte). Im Hinblick auf das oben genannte Klimaschutzziel werden in dieser Arbeit verschiedene Entwicklungsszenarien auf Basis des Nutzungsgrades der Anlagen und der Energiequellen analysiert. Hierbei wird deutlich, dass das theoretische Energieeinsparpotenzial im deutschen Wohnungssektor bezüglich des durchschnittlichen Nutzungsgrades nur zwischen 4 und 15 % liegt. Dies bedeutet, dass eine deutliche Reduktion des Endenergiebedarfs im Wohnungssektor nur stattfinden kann, wenn andere Energieeinsparmaßnahmen betrachtet werden. Basierend auf den Ergebnissen der Sensitivitätsanalyse werden hierzu Empfehlungen gegeben.
Portugal is one of the European countries with higher spatial and population freeway network coverage. The sharp growth of this network in the last years instigates the use of methods of analysis and the evaluation of their quality of service in terms of the traffic performance, typically performed through internationally accepted methodologies, namely that presented in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). Lately, the use of microscopic traffic simulation models has been increasingly widespread. These models simulate the individual movement of the vehicles, allowing to perform traffic analysis. The main target of this study was to verify the possibility of using microsimulation as an auxiliary tool in the adaptation of the methodology by HCM 2000 to Portugal. For this purpose, were used the microscopic simulators AIMSUN and VISSIM for the simulation of the traffic circulation in the A5 Portuguese freeway. The results allowed the analysis of the influence of the main geometric and traffic factors involved in the methodology by HCM 2000. In conclusion, the study presents the main advantages and limitations of the microsimulators AIMSUN and VISSIM in modelling the traffic circulation in Portuguese freeways. The main limitation is that these microsimulators are not able to simulate explicitly some of the factors considered in the HCM 2000 methodology, which invalidates their direct use as a tool in the quantification of those effects and, consequently, makes the direct adaptation of this methodology to Portugal impracticable.
Im Rahmen der Forschung an Bauteil- und Fügestellendämpfung wurden die Schwingungen der Bauteile bisher mit 1D-Laser-Vibrometern gemessen. Nun steht ein 3D-Laser-Scanner zur Verfügung. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, ob mit dem 3D-Laser-Scanner bessere und weitere relevante Daten bei der Schwingungsmessung gewonnen werden können.