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- 2004 (220) (remove)
The uniqueness and the long life cycle of buildings imply a dynamically modifiable building model. The technological foundation for the management of digital building models, a dynamic model management system (MMS), developed by our research group, allows to explicitly access and to modify the object model of the stored planning data. In this paper, the integration of constraints in digital building models will be shown. Constraints are conditions, which apply to the instances of domain model classes, and are defined by the user at runtime of the information system. For the expression of constraints, the Constraint Modelling Language (CML) has been developed and will be described in this paper. CML is a powerful, intuitively usable object-oriented language, which allows the expression of constraints at a high semantic level. A constrained-enabled MMS can verify, whether an instance fulfils the applying constraints. To ensure flexibility, the evaluation of constraints is not implicitly performed by the systems, but explicitly initiated by the user. A classification of constraint types and example usage scenarios are given.
The increasing demands in building and civil engineering – with regard to the growing amount of legal requirements and the needs of a flexible usage of the building - requires an optimisation of all processes during the planning and construction phases. This aim can be only reached by transferring of innovative information and communication technologies in the field of cooperation of all partners in a building project. In this article the enhancement of the existing planning processes based on an improved information management is introduced. Since the late 90ies the availability of hardware and software infrastructures for a networkbased cooperation, e.g. email, in small and middle-sized companies increased the problems of an unstructured communication in the planning and construction processes. These problems have not been solved by the usage of the upcoming project communication systems either, which are often used as a simple medium for data transfer. Because of the easy way of distributing documents to all planning partners a huge amount of files and subsequent versions can be stored so that the planners often have to scope with an information overflow. The underlying hierarchical structures based on simple files stored in tree views are not sufficient for an adequate representation of the different specific views of the planners and the management of relationships between the three information domains building structure, costs and time schedules. ..
Buildings require both for construction and, due to their comparatively long life cycle for maintenance, significant raw material and energy resources. So far available knowledge about resource consumption during an entire life cycle of a building is still quite rare, because various criteria affect each other and/or overlay mutually. In this contribution a model based software concept is presented using an integrated approach for life cycle simulation and assessment of buildings. The essential point of the development consists of connecting an IFC compliant product model of a building via the Internet with data bases for the resource and energy requirement of building materials. Furthermore, numerical simulations allow calculating and minimizing the energy consumption, the resource requirement, the waste streams and also the noxious emissions. In the context of this paper we present the first release of software programs for architects and engineers, which help them to evaluate their design decisions objectively in early planning steps. Additionally the usage of the software is demonstrated by a test case study for a real world building. By applying this software in practice a substantial contribution for saving energy and natural resources can be provided in the sense of sustainable and ecological building design.
Integrated Engineering Workflow focused on the Structural Engineering in the Industrial Environment
(2004)
The engineering and construction industry has been slow to exploit the full potential of information technology. The industry is highly fragmented, price sensitive, risk-adverse, and profit margins are small. Each project is unique with a small amount of technological innovation opportunities to capitalise on from one project to the next. Technological innovations that have been taking place are just simulating the old traditional paper workflow. Engineering information in digital form is being conveyed using traditional paper representations, which have to be interpreted by humans before the information can be used in other applications, thereby creating ‘islands of information’. It can be seen that poorly implemented IT strategies are duplicating paperwork, rather than reducing or eliminating it (Crowley et al., 2000). This paper will introduce the Integrated Engineering Workflow (IEW) concept to re-organise a structural discipline working on multi-disciplinary projects so as to maximise the advantages offered by new information technology.
With the speedy development of transportation of China, especially construction of many high-grade highways, some information technology successes have been achieved in the highway and bridge engineering, such as survey, design, construction and maintenance etc. In this paper, some applications about information technology in the highway engineering were introduced and some bridge professional software developed by RIOH (Research Institute Of Highways) in recent years was also introduced.
Construction is a conservative industry that over the last twenty ye ars has experienced drastic changes in the way that interdisciplinary teams interact to design and execute a project. In this article we offer a general overview of how the main participants cooperate in the different phases of a construction project, and which are some of the main areas for communication improvement. We also explore the communication tools used in the exchange of information, and identify the main causes of information breakdown. The general framework of this study is of application to both standard and green projects. At the end of the article we discuss the peculiarities of green buildings. Our goal is to offer a series of industry insights derived from the perspective of a general contractor aimed at identifying the areas where contributions in computing and information exchange could have a greater impact on the successful completion of a project.
Re-examination of the behaviour of structures can be necessary due to deterioration or changes in the traffic situation during their lifetime. The Finite Element Method (FEM) is widely used in order to accomplish numerical analysis. Considering the development of computer performance, more detailed FEM models can be analyzed, even on site, with mobile computers. To compensate the increasing amount of data needed for the model input, measures need to be taken to save time, by distributing the work. In order to provide consistency to the model, fedback data must be checked upon reception. A local wireless computer network of ultra-portable devices linked together with a computer can provide the coordination necessary for efficient parallel working. Based on a digital model consisting of all data gathered, structural modelling and numerical analysis are performed automatically. Thus, the user is released from the work that can be automatized and the time needed for the overall analysis of a structure is decreased.
This paper introduces the current development of electronic catalogues of construction products. The common system architecture of Web-based electronic products catalogues are discussed, followed by a discussion on construction products information standardization and latest distributed-systems technologies for communicating construction products information. Finally, this paper presents an implementation of Web service in e-commerce systems to enable sharing of construction products information.
In this research project we intend to transfer the whole AEC-Bidding process to an agent-based virtual marketplace. Hereby, the existing legal regulations have to be considered. Important aspects in developing the virtual marketplace are to provide the possibility to realize an agentbased bidding consortium as well as to integrate subcontractors.
Organisational and human issues have been highlighted, among other issues (ICT infrastructures, legal and contractual, etc.), as key elements in enhancing the competitiveness of the construction sector. More specifically, the importance of human resources has been recognised, especially training and professional development, in order to cultivate a stable workforce. The paper provides a review of the key training needs for the construction sector with particular reference to the uptake and exploitation of new technologies and working practices, presents an action plan to address learning and training needs, and proposes an eight-stage iterative learning and training methodology. The results will be of particular interest to managers in stakeholder organisations of all sizes throughout the sector, plus academic and research bodies intending to continue construction ICT research.
This article discusses how the failures of construction projects could be prevented. The focus is on using IT tools in communication. The article is based on the findings of the PROLABproject. The project seeks to find solutions for how the information can effectively be used in project management, specially in construction projects, what kind of procedures help the management of the knowledge and how the obstacles for efficient ways of administrating the information can be removed. These obstacles can be either related to use of new technology or to organization culture. The paper discusses e-mail as a medium of communication with the media richness framework (Fulk & Boyd 1991) based on the interviews done with the participants of construction projects. We found out that the emails were used in both rich way and not so rich way. Obstacles of rich use of IT communication were partly technical and partly psychological. Technology acceptance model (TAM) is used to study the actual use of emails in communication. Obstacles of the use of emails were mostly individual differences like the skills to use the system or external variables like they did not have proper software to open the attachments. Also people talked about information overload. Emails often push too much information. Keywords: IT tools, Communication, Knowledge management, Construction
The highway product model based on the length information of the centerline, and the application system is developed. This paper shows the schema and the modeling process of the product model, which includes geometric elements such as an alignment, lanes, sidewalks, shoulders and sprits, and accessories such as guard fences, plantings and signs. Furthermore, The Highway Sequence Editor (HSE) is developed as an application system to verify the model.
As a result of the pilot-project “Grundwasser-Online” the supervision and the active controlling of large monitoring- and catchment-areas are realised by a co-operative integration of all related institutions, a synchronisation-process to combine all distributed data into one central server database, and a high-level eGovernment-Service to provide evaluated information over the internet. Based on this software system the local authorities are able to supervise the groundwater-levels and to find adequate decisions, which finally result in official permissions for the usage of groundwater-reservoirs by the water supply companies.
Many problems related to data integration in AEC can be better tackled by an approach that takes into account the heterogeneity of tasks, models and applications but does not require continuous consistency of the evolving design data, at each data management operation. Such an approach must incorporate adequate services that can facilitate reintegration of concurrently modified data at reasonably selected coordination points. In this paper we present a set of methods which, used in combination, can achieve that goal. After a description of the principal envisaged cooperative work scenario each of these methods is discussed in detail and current observations drawn from their software realisation are given. Whilst the suggested approach is valid for any EXPRESS-based data model, the practical focus of work has been on facilitating IFC-driven integration.
This paper describes a couple of new truss structures based on fractal geometry. One is the famous Sierpinski Gasket and another is a fractal triangle derived by means of applying a process forming leaves of a cedar tree using M. F. Barnsley’s contraction mapping theory. Therefore a pair of x-y coordinates of an arbitrary nodal point on the structures are generated easily if IFS(Iterated Function System) codes and a scale of them are specified. Structural members are defined similarly. Thus data for frame analysis can be generated automatically, which is significant if the objective structure has complex configuration. Next analytical results under vertical and wind loadings in Japanese Building Code are shown. Here members are assumed to be timber and to have cross section of 15cm×15cm. Finally authors conclude that geometrically new truss structures were developed and automatic data generation for frame analysis was attained using IFS. Analytical results show they contribute to saving material when compared it with King-post truss.
The method of the finite elements is an adaptable numerical procedure for interpolation as well as for the numerical approximation of solutions of partial differential equations. The basis of these procedure is the formulation of suitable finite elements and element decompositions of the solution space. Classical finite elements are based on triangles or quadrangles in the two-dimensional space and tetrahedron or hexahedron in the threedimensional space. The use of arbitrary-dimensional convex and non-convex polyhedrons as the geometrical basis of finite elements increases the flexibility of generating finite element decompositions substantially and is sometimes the only way to get a clear decomposition...
Current building product models explicitly represent components, attributes of components, and relationships between components. These designer-focused product models, however, do not represent many of the design conditions that are important for construction, such as component similarity, uniformity, and penetrations. Current design and construction tools offer limited support for detecting these construction-specific design conditions. This paper describes the ontology we developed using the manufacturing concept of features to represent the design conditions that are important for construction. The feature ontology provides the blueprint for the additions and changes needed to transform a standard product model into a constructionspecific product model. The ontology formalizes three classes of features, defines the attributes and functions of each feature type, and represents the relationships between features explicitly. The descriptive semantics of the ontology allows practitioners to represent their varied preferences for naming features, specifying features that result from component intersections and the similarity of components, and grouping features that affect a specific construction domain. A software prototype that implements the ontology enables practitioners to transform designer-focused product models into feature-based product models that represent the construction perspective.
Möglichkeiten der Projektrealisierung: Einzelvergabe der Planungs- und Bauaufgaben, Vergabe aller Planungs- und Bauaufgaben an einen Generalunternehmer. Die frühzeitige Einbindung eines erfahrenen und fachkundigen Generalunternehmers gibt dem Auftraggeber die Möglichkeit, bei minimiertem Risiko zu einer wirtschaftlich und bautechnisch optimalen Lösung seiner Bauaufgabe zu kommen.
The construction management has been under pressure to reduce operating costs and to improve productivity using innovative information technologe (IT) solutions conformed to structural characteristics, site conditions and past experiences. Given the growing emphasis on effectiveness and efficiency in construction projects, there is an imminent need to develop a formal procedure to select the best IT application for each proposed construction project and research and development (R&D) project. As there are numerous factors that have to be considered in selecting appropriate IT in a given situation, decision-makers need to have multicriteria decision-making ability. To enable them to make the most appropriate decision in any situation, it is important that effective tools incorporating multicriteria decision-making techniques are available. In this paper, an Analytic Network Process (ANP) model is conducted for the selection of appropriate IT application for innovative construction management prior to construction or research. The paper concludes that the ANP is a viable and capable tool for conducting IT application selection in multicriteria decision-making environment.
During the establishing of fundamentals in a building project a huge amount of influence factors and boundary conditions have to be investigated in order to provide the prerequisites for further planning processes. These investigative tasks are often related with a great effort concerning time and money, because there are no standardized workflows and interfaces which provide an efficient access to the necessary information related to a specific construction site. Within the fundamental investigation human and natural circumstances have to be taken into account. Thus, in this project two examples have been chosen in order to demonstrate the holistic approach for an integration and provision of georeferenced information. The developed internet-site http://www.grundlagenermittlung.de has been designed to support architects and civil engineers in early planning phases of a building project efficiently. It offers web-based services based on dynamic interfaces for a flexible search and collection of information concerning the building site. Therefore, a central Metadatabase-Server for Description, Discovery and Integration has been established which enables a registration of georeferenced services and the redirection of incoming requests to other, distributed data pools. Using this Yellow-Page concept in combination with the underlying meta-data based on the ISO 19115 standard an efficient investigation of geographical and environmental information becomes possible.
Entscheidungshilfen für die Planung von Anlagen zum naßmechanischen Recycling von Betonrestmassen
(2004)
Trotz der weiten Verbreitung erfolgt die Planung der Restbetonrecyclinganlagen immer noch durch learnig-by-doing, da verfahrenstechnisches Grundlagenwissen nicht vorliegt. Wer an verantwortlicher Stelle die Investition in eine neue oder in die Verbesserung einer bestehenden Restbetonrecyclinganlage beurteilen soll, steht vor einer komplexen Entscheidung, die unter Berücksichtigung unterschiedlichster Kriterien getroffen werden muss. In der Praxis besteht hinsichtlich der Qualitätssicherung der Recyclingprodukte, der Ablagerungen der noch reaktiven Zementpartikel, der Bemessung der eingesetzten Maschinen, der praktikablen Handhabung hinsichtlich einiger Detailprobleme sowie der Anordnung der verfahrenstechnischen Komponenten in Bezug zur Geländeoberkante weitgehend Unklarheit. Das allgemeine Verlangen nach einer durchdachten Entscheidungshilfe und die Notwendigkeit, zu einem sachlich begründeten Urteil zu kommen, macht Entscheidungshilfen für die Planung von Restbetonrecyclinganlagen erforderlich. Insbesondere da Fehlentscheidungen nicht nur mit großem Aufwand rückgängig gemacht werden können. Hierfür wurden 18 maßgebliche Entscheidungskriterien entwickelt. Diese Entscheidungskriterien wurden im Rahmen der Nutzwertanalyse als Projektziele entwickelt. Die erarbeiteten Kriterien einteilen: - Kriterien zur Qualitätssicherung bei der Verwendung der Recyclingprodukte Für die Wiederverwendung der Recyclingprodukte Restwasser und Restbetonzu- schlag sind im technischen Regelwerk Verfahrensweisen vorgechrieben. Hinsichtlich der Prozesse bei der Wiederverwendung konnten deutliche Ver- besserungspotentiale aufgezeigt werden. Besonders die Anwendung von online- Dichtemessverfahren im Vergleich zur Aräometermessung verbessert die Len- kungsprozesse zur Qualitätssicherung. Aber auch die weitere Klassierung oder das getrennte Lagern und Dosieren des Restbetonzuschlags im Vergleich zu der im technischen Regelwerk vorgeschriebenen Verfahrensweise des volumetrischen Abschätzens bringt Verbesserungspotential. - Kriterien zur Minimierung von Ablagerungen Noch reaktive Zementpartikel kommen zeitweise permanent mit Anlagen- komponenten, Leitungen und Beckeninnenflächen der Recyclinganlage in Be- rührung. Ablagerungen von Zementpartikeln, die den Betrieb der Anlage be- hindern, verschlechtern oder sogar verhindern, sind unvermeidbar. Aller- dings kann, wie im Rahmen dieser Arbeit gezeigt wurde, eine Minimierung der Ablagerungen durch geeignete Maßnahmen herbeigeführt werden. Die Ablage- rungen im Suspensionsbeckenlassen sich durch den Zustand der homogenen Suspension sowie durch das Strömungsbild angepasste Formgebung minimieren. Durch die geeignete Gefällewahl und vor allem durch die korrekte Wahl der Pumpenart können die Ablagerungen in Leitungen minimiert werden. - Kriterien zur Bemessung der verfahrenstechnischen Apparate Die Auslegung der Recyclinganlage hinsichtlich der Auswaschleistung, der Rührerleistung und der Größe des Suspendierraumes erfolgt bisher anhand von praktischen Erfahrungswerten. In dieser Arbeit wurde für die Auswasch- leistung ein allgemeingültiges Berechnungsmodel hergeleitet. Darüber hinaus wurde gezeigt, dass die Rührerleistung für das Suspendieren von Restwasser berechnet werden kann. Die Größe des Suspendierraumes kann unter Be- rücksichtigung der zu- und abfließenden Materialströme berechnet werden. Das Trennverhalten des mechanischen Klassierers wurde im Rahmen einer Ver- suchsreihe mit folgenden Ergebnissen ermittelt: a. Die Klassierdurchsätze steigen mit größer werdendem Entleerdurchsatz. ufgrund der Pufferwirkung des mechanischen Klassierers, bei der die diskontinuierlich in den Aufgabetrichter gefüllte Restbetontrübe (Ent- leeren) in einem kontinuerlichen Prozess (Klassieren) durch den Trog gefördert wird, nähert sich der Klassierdurchsatz asymtotisch einem Grenzwert an. b. Das Masseausbringen rbz wird signifikant vom Klassierdurchsatz und weniger vom Entleerdurchsatz beeinflusst. c. Die Korngrößenverteilung des Restbetons, des Restbetonzuschlags und des Restwassers belegen anschaulich den erreichten Trenneffekt. d. Die Trennkorngröße steigt mit zunehmendem Klassierdurchsatz an. Diese Tendenz ist allerdings nur bei Betrachtung des "nassen" Klassier- durchsatzes signifikant erkennbar. Bei Betrachtung des "trockenen" Durchsatzes ergibt sich keine Abhängigkeit. Die Ursache hierfür ist, dass in den "nassen" Durchsatz Prozesse wie Trübeagitation und Feinkorn- konzentration indirekt eingehen. e. Der Fehlkornanteil < 125 µm im Restbetonzuschlag steigt ebenfalls mit "nassem" Klassiersatz an. f. Im Unterschied dazu bestehen für den Fehlkornanteil > 125 µm im Rest- wasser signifikante Abhängigkeiten zu Entleer- und Klassierdurchsätzen. Ursache ist der tote Fluss. - Kriterien zur Praktikabilität des Anlagenberiebes - Interdependenzen zwischen Anlagenkomponenten
Integrated structural engineering system usually consists of large number of design objects that may be distributed across different platforms. These design objects need to communicate data and information among each other. For efficient communication among design objects a common communication protocol need to be defined. This paper presents the elements of a communication protocol that uses a mediator agent to facilitate communication among design objects. This protocol is termed the Mediative Communication Protocol (MCP). The protocol uses certain design communication performatives and the semantics of an Agent Communication language (ACL) mainly the Knowledge and Query Manipulation Language (KQML) to implement its steps. Details of a Mediator Agent, that will facilitate the communication among design objects, is presented. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is used to present the Meditative protocol and show how the mediator agent can be use to execute the steps of the meditative communication protocol. An example from structural engineering application is presented to demonstrate and validate the protocol. It is concluded that the meditative protocol is a viable protocol to facilitate object-to-object communication and also has potential to facilitate communication among the different project participants at the higher level of integrated structural engineering systems.
Gegenstand dieser Arbeit ist es zu zeigen, ob die Anwendung der Methode der Finiten Elemente für die Berechnungen von aussteifenden Wandkonstruktionen in Holzrahmen- bzw. Holztafelbauweise richtige und verallgemeinerbare Ergebnisse liefert und damit: · zur Bemessung von Konstruktionen dienen kann, · die Nachrechnung bestehender Konstruktionen mit von der Norm abweichenden Ausführungsdetails erlaubt und · einen Ersatz für 1:1-Versuche an Wandscheiben darstellt. Die Ergebnisse lassen sich wie folgt zusammenfassen: Unter den derzeitigen Bedingungen stellt die Methode der Berechnung mit Finiten Elementen für die Bemessung von Ein- und Zweirastertafeln, vor allem für die bautechnische Praxis, keine sinnvolle Alternative zu den in den Normen genannten Berechnungsverfahren dar. Für Ein- und Zweirastersysteme sind die Nachweisverfahren der DIN 1052 bzw. des Eurocode 5 ausreichend. Sie können durch das Berechnungsverfahren nach KESSEL sinnvoll ergänzt werden. Die Drucklastverteilung in den Vertikalrippen wird jedoch nur unzureichend erfasst. Für Konstruktionen wie die in dieser Arbeit untersuchte Mehrrastertafel stehen derzeit keine geeigneten Berechnungsverfahren zur Verfügung. Die Anwendbarkeit der FE-Methode für die Nachrechnung bestehender Konstruktionen mit von der Norm abweichenden Konstruktionsdetails konnte in dieser Arbeit nicht nachgewiesen werden. Für die FE-Modellbildung von Wandscheiben des Holzrahmenbaus wurden verschiedenen Detaillösungen gezeigt. Es wurde gezeigt, welche Konstruktionsdetails der Wandscheiben signifikante Auswirkungen auf das Gesamttragverhalten haben. Die FE-Methode kann in der in dieser Arbeit verwendeten Form zur Vorbereitung von Versuchen an 1:1-Modellen dienen und wertvolle Hinweise zum Einfluß verschiedener Konstruktionsdetails auf das Gesamttragverhalten der Wandtafel liefern, um gezielt Veränderungen vornehmen zu können. Insofern stellen Berechnungen mit der FE-Methode eine sinnvolle Ergänzung dar.
Der Einsatz von Lehmbaustoffen stößt an Grenzen, wenn das Material Feuchtigkeit ausgesetzt ist. Die vorliegende Arbeit enthält Untersuchungen zur Verbesserung der Wasserbständigkeit von Lehmbaustoffen. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass mittels alumosilikatischer Polymerbinder der Widerstand von Lehmbaustoffen gegen Feuchteeinwirkung erheblich verbessert werden kann. Die positiven bauklimatischen Eigenschaften werden dabei nicht negativ beeinflusst.
In this paper, systematic analyses for the shoring systems installed to support the applied loads during construction are performed on the basis of the numerical approach. On the basis of a rigorous time-dependent analysis, structural behaviors of reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures according to the changes in design variables such as the types of shoring systems, shore stiffness and shore spacing are analyzed and discussed. The time-dependent deformations of concrete such as creep and shrinkage and construction sequences of frame structures are also taken into account to minimize the structural instability and to reach to an improved design of shoring system because these effects may increase the axial forces delivered to the shores. In advance, the influence of the column shortening effect, generally mentioned in a tall building structure, is analyzed. From many parametric studies, it has been finally concluded that the most effective shoring system in RC frame structures is 2S1R (two shores and one reshore) regardless of the changes in design variables.
The development of 3D technologies during the last decades in many different areas, leads us towards the complete 3D representation of planet earth on a high level of detail. On the lowest level we have geographical information systems (GIS) representing the outer layer of our planet as a 3D model. In the meantime these systems do not only give a geographical model but also present additional information like ownership, infrastructure and others that might be of interest for the construction business. In future these systems will serve as basis for virtual environments for planning and simulation of construction sites. In addition to this work is done on the integration of GIS systems with 3D city models in the area of urban planning and thus integration of different levels of detail. This article presents research work on the use of 3D models in construction on the next level of detail below the level of urban planning. The 3D city model is taken as basis for the 3D model of the construction site. In this virtual nD-world a contractor can organize and plan his resources, simulate different variants of construction processes and thus find out the most effective solution for the consideration of costs and time. On the basis of former researches the authors present a new approach for cost estimation and simulation using development technologies from game software.
This paper presents an innovative software platform OpenSTEP intended to build advanced distributed integrated systems and to conduct multidisciplinary collaborative projects in both academy and industry. The paper discusses an open system architecture, methodology, component library and CASE toolkit enabling the developers to build a wide range of interoperable applications and systems compliant with STEP and, particularly, with IFC becoming the increasingly important standard for information integration in architecture, engineering and construction.
This paper presents results of a study on distributed, or parallel, evolutionary computation in the topological design of steel structural systems in tall buildings. It describes results of extensive experimental research on various parallel evolutionary architectures applied to a complex structural design problem. The experiments were conducted using Inventor 2003, a networkbased evolutionary design support tool developed at George Mason University. First, a general introduction to evolutionary computation is provided with an emphasis on recent developments in parallel evolutionary architectures. Next, a discussion of conceptual design of steel structural systems in tall buildings is presented. Further, Inventor 2003 is briefly introduced as well as its design representation and evolutionary computation characteristics. Next, the results obtained from systematic design experiments conducted with Inventor 2003 are discussed. The objective of these experiments was to qualitatively and quantitatively investigate evolution of steel structural systems in tall buildings during a distributed evolutionary design process as well as to compare efficiency and effectiveness of various parallel evolutionary architectures with the traditional evolutionary design approaches. Two connectivity topologies (ring topology and fully-connected topology) have been investigated for four populations of structural designs evolving in parallel and using various migration strategies. Also, results of the initial sensitivity studies are reported in which two ways of initializing distributed evolutionary design processes were investigated, using either arbitrarily selected designs as initial parents or randomly generated ones. Finally, initial research conclusions are presented.
In this contribution the software design and implementation of an analysis server for the computation of failure probabilities in structural engineering is presented. The structures considered are described in terms of an equivalent Finite Element model, the stochastic properties, like e.g. the scatter of the material behavior or the incoming load, are represented using suitable random variables. Within the software framework, a Client-Server-Architecture has been implemented, employing the middleware CORBA for the communication between the distributed modules. The analysis server offers the possibility to compute failure probabilities for stochastically defined structures. Therefore, several different approximation (FORM, SORM) and simulation methods (Monte Carlo Simulation and Importance Sampling) have been implemented. This paper closes in showing several examples computed on the analysis server.
Available construction time-cost trade-off analysis models can be used to generate trade-offs between these two important objectives, however, their application is limited in large-scale construction projects due to their impractical computational requirements. This paper presents the development of a scalable and multi-objective genetic algorithm that provides the capability of simultaneously optimizing construction time and cost large-scale construction projects. The genetic algorithm was implemented in a distributed computing environment that utilizes a recent standard for parallel and distributed programming called the message passing interface (MPI). The performance of the model is evaluated using a set of measures of performance and the results demonstrate the capability of the present model in significantly reducing the computational time required to optimize large-scale construction projects.
Re-using knowledge in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms can lead to greater competitive advantage, improved designs, and more effective management of constructed facilities. This paper discusses the importance of exploration and discovery of reusable knowledge from a corporate archive as opposed to simple search and retrieval. We describe and illustrate through a scenario of use an exploration framework and prototype, CoMemTM that formalizes the added value of exploration in the process of knowledge reuse. We discuss two exploration activities: (i) Breadth- Only overview exploration that assist a user to rapidly localize pockets of re-usable knowledge from the large corporate archive and (ii) Iterative breadth-depth exploration that enables a user to identify those re-usable components of the Corporate Memory that may yield design issues that were not originally considered.
Die Arbeit beschreibt ein Konzept zur computergestützten, schrittweisen Erfassung und Abbildung der Geometrie von Gebäuden im Kontext der planungsrelevanten Bauaufnahme. Zunächst wird die Bauaufnahme als Erstellung eines verwendungsspezifischen Modells betrachtet. Anschließend wird der Fokus auf das geometrische Abbild gelegt. Es werden u.a. die Aufmaßtechniken Handaufmaß, Tachymetrie und Photogrammetrie bewertet und gebäudetypische geometrische Abstraktionen aufgelistet. Danach erfolgt eine Aufstellung von Anforderungen an ein computergestütztes Aufmaßsystem, welche mit kommerziellen Lösungen aus dem nichtgeodätischen Bereich verglichen wird. Im Hauptteil wird das zu Beginn genannte Konzept beschrieben. Betrachtet wird die skizzenbasierte Erstellung eines nichtmaßlichen geometrischen Abbildes des Gebäudes in den Frühphasen der Bauaufnahme, seine anschließende schrittweise maßliche Anpassung an das Original und topologische Detaillierung im Zuge des Bauaufmaßes, sowie die Extraktion von Bauteilen und ihren geometrischen Parametern. Zur Vereinfachung der maßlichen Anpassung des geometrischen Abbildes im Aufmaßprozeß werden geometrische Abstraktionen wie Parallelitäten, rechte Winkel usw. genutzt, aber nicht erzwungen. Mit Hilfe der Ausgleichungsrechnung erfolgt eine Zusammenführung der geometrischen Abstraktionen und verschiedener Aufmaßtechniken. Es werden die nötigen Beobachtungsgleichungen und andere relevante Aspekte beschrieben. Gezeigt wird weiter ein Konzept, wie ein nutzerseitig veränderbares Bauwerksmodell mit dem geometrischen Abbild in Bezug gebracht werden kann, wobei aus dem geometrischen Abbild geometrische Parameter des nutzerseitig veränderbaren Bauwerkmodells gewonnen werden können. Ausgesuchte Problematiken der Arbeit wurden prototypisch implementiert und getestet. Hierbei stand die Verbindung der Aufmaßtechniken und geometrischen Abstraktionen im Mittelpunkt. Die geometrischen Ansätze der Arbeit beschränken sich auf planare Oberflächen.
Die Bedeutung von klassischen Elementen in virtueller Architektur - Untersucht am Beispiel der Wand
(2004)
Die Dissertation exploriert und evaluiert die Definition einer Entsprechung der architektonischen Kategorie der Wand für virtuelle Architekturen. Es wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwieweit eine architektonische Strukturierung in der virtuellen Architektur fortzuführen ist, um Handlungs- und Kommunikationsstrukturen zu sichern. Der erste Teil motiviert die Arbeit und vermittelt die Grundlagen und Termini, die in einem direkten Zusammenhang mit der virtuellen Architektur verwendet werden. Der folgende Teil konzentriert sich ausschließlich auf die reale Architektur. Ausgehend vom Element der Wand wird, in einer analytischen und architekturtheoretischen Betrachtung, ein Modell von Raumkategorien entwickelt, welches im Hinblick auf die virtuelle Architektur von besonderer Bedeutung ist. Die aus der Analyse gewonnen Erkenntnisse in Form von Raumkategorien werden im dritten Teil aus der realen in die virtuelle Architektur übertragen. Das folgende Kapitel beschreibt drei Experimente, die Fra-gen, Hypothesen und Ansätze aus den vorangegangenen Kapiteln empirisch evaluieren. Im abschließenden Kapitel werden die Erkenntnisse der experimentellen Untersuchung im Kontext des architektonischen Gestaltens von virtuellen Architekturen diskutiert.
Der Architektenvertrag als Werkvertrag (Konsequenzen: Haftung für den Werkerfolg, keine abschließende Bestimmung des vom Architekten geschuldeten Leistungsumfanges durch den Tätigkeitskatalog etwa von § 15 HOAI), vertragliche und außervertragliche Haftungstatbestände (vertragliche Ansprüche des Auftraggebers gegen den Architekten, Haftung gegenüber Dritten aufgrund des Architektenvertrages), typische Haftungsrisiken des Architekten, insbesondere im Kostenbereich sowie für Planungs- und Objektüberwachungsfehler (Haftung des Architekten für Überschreitung der Baukosten, Architektenhaftung bei Planungs- und Objektüberwachungsfehlern), Zulässigkeit der Vereinbarung von Haftungsbeschränkungen, Berufshaftpflichtversicherung für Architekten und Ingenieure
This paper reports on the latest results in the development of a new approach for simulating the thermal behavior of buildings that overcomes the limitations of conventional heat-transfer simulation methods such as FDM and FEM. The proposed technique uses a coarse-grain approach to model development whereby each element represents a complete building component such as a wall, internal space, or floor. The thermal behavior of each coarse-grain element is captured using empirical modeling techniques such as artificial neural networks (ANNs). The main advantages of the approach compared to conventional simulation methods are: (a) simplified model construction for the end-user; (b) simplified model reconfiguration; (c) significantly faster simulation runs (orders of magnitude faster for two and three-dimensional models); and (d) potentially more accurate results. The paper demonstrates the viability of the approach through a number of experiments with a model of a composite wall. The approach is shown to be able to sustain highly accurate longterm simulation runs, if the coarse-grain modeling elements are implemented as ANNs. In contrast, an implementation of the coarse-grain elements using a linear model is shown to function inaccurately and erratically. The paper concludes with an identification of on-going work and future areas for development of the technique.
Development of Urban Land Use Model to Compare Transit-Oriented and Automobile-Oriented Cities
(2004)
This study is an attempt to develop a simple simulation model that can compare the differences between automobile-oriented and transit-oriented cities, and clarify the difference between city forms by transportation modes. Following a theoretical model development, a series of simulation runs are tried. The model allocates people who commute to CBD from residential zones along a transportation corridor. As a result of many simulation analyses, it is shown that automobiles need much more traffic space in comparison with the transit as is shown by the proposed traffic space ratio both in CBD and along the corridor.
A simulation system has been developed as a computer aided design tool to evaluate the effect of proposed design on the thermal environment during the designing process. This system calculates outdoor surface temperatures in order to evaluate the thermal impact of a design factor in outdoor space. In this study, the previous heat balance simulation system was improved to predict the surface temperature of a proposed design using 3D-CAD. This system is able to input the complicated outdoor spatial forms efficiently and also to evaluate the surface temperature distribution from any viewpoint.
Digital maps are very easily applied as route guide maps. Route guide maps are provided through Web or a mobile phone services, and demand for such services is increasing. However, the production of a route guide map requires a great deal of time. Therefore, it is difficult for general users to make route guide maps. The purpose of the present research is the development of a system that can generate a route guide map using the Digital Map 2500 (Spatial Data Framework) published by the Geographical Survey Institute. This system will not require advanced equipment or expert knowledge. Therefore, anyone can produce route guide maps easily and quickly. By using the Digital Map 2500, the time and cost required in order to generate a map are reduced. Moreover, a useful route guide map can be created by simplifying the map form based on the human cognitive map.
Change management has been the focus of different IT systems. These IT systems were developed to represent design information, record design rationale, facilitate design coordination and changes. They are largely based on managing reactive changes, particularly design changes, in which changes are recorded and then propagated to the relevant project members. However, proactive changes are hardly dealt with in IT systems. Proactive changes require estimating the likelihood of occurrence of a change event as well as estimating the degree of change impacts on project parameters. Changes in construction projects often result from the uncertainty associated with the imprecise and vague knowledge of much project information at the early stages of projects. This is a major outcome of the case studies carried out as part of this research. Therefore, the proposed model considers that incomplete knowledge and certain project characteristics are always behind change causes. For proactive changes, predicting a change event is the main task for modelling. The prediction model should strive to integrate these main elements: 1) project characteristics that lead to change 2) causes of change, 3) the likelihood of change occurrence, and 4) the change consequences. It should also define the dependency relationships between these elements. However, limited data (documented) are only available from previous projects for change cases and many of the above elements can only be expressed in linguistic terms. This means that the model will simulate the uncertainty and subjectivity associated with these sets of elements. Therefore, a fuzzy model is proposed in this research to capture these elements. The model analyses the impact of each set of elements on the other by assigning fuzzy values for these elements that express the uncertainty and subjectivity of their impact. The main aim is to predict change events and evaluate change effects on project parameters. The fuzzy model described above was developed in an IT system for operational purposes and was designed as a Java package of components with their supporting classes, beans, and files. This paper describes the development and the architecture of the proposed IT system to achieve these requirements. The system is intended to help project teams in dealing with change causes and then the change consequences in construction projects.
PKPM series CAD software is an integrated CAD system for building design, which integrated the following parts: architectural design, structural design, building service design and statistic analysis of quantity and budget. These four parts share the same database with high efficiency. Over 80% of design corporation in China are using PKPM series CAD software. The detailed information and some key modules of PKPM series CAD software are mainly introduced in this paper.
Development and Analysis of Sparse Matrix Concepts for Finite Element Approximation on general Cells
(2004)
In engineering and computing, the finite element approximation is one of the most well-known computational solution techniques. It is a great tool to find solutions for mechanic, fluid mechanic and ecological problems. Whoever works with the finite element method will need to solve a large system of linear equations. There are different ways to find a solution. One way is to use a matrix decomposition technique such as LU or QR. The other possibility is to use an iterative solution algorithm like Conjugate Gradients, Gauß-Seidel, Multigrid Methods, etc. This paper will focus on iterative solvers and the needed storage techniques...
Communication software and distributed applications for control and building performance simulation software must be reliable, efficient, flexible, and reusable. This paper reports on progress of a project, which aims to achieve better integrated building and systems control modeling in building performance simulation by run-time coupling of distributed computer programs. These requirements motivate the use of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), which offers sufficient advantage than communication within simple abstraction. However, set up highly available applications with CORBA is hard. Neither control modeling software nor building performance environments have simple interface with CORBA objects. Therefore, this paper describes an architectural solution to distributed control and building performance software tools with CORBA objects. Then, it explains how much the developement of CORBA based distributed building control simulation applications is difficult. The paper finishes by giving some recommendations.
An important feature of the 2003 SARS outbreak in Canada, Singapore, and Hong Kong was that many health care workers (HCWs) developed SARS after caring for patients with SARS. This has been ascribed to inadequate or ineffective patient isolation. However, it is difficult for dense cities to provide sufficient isolation facilities within a short period of time. This has raised concerns from the public for new strategies in the planning and design of isolation facilities. Considering that SARS or other infectious diseases could seriously damage our society’s development, isolation facilities that could be rapidly and economically constructed with appropriate environmental controls are essential. For this reason, the design team of the Department of Architecture collaborated with a special task force from the Faculty of Medicine, who are the frontline medical officers treating the SARS patients, to design Rapidly Assembled Isolation Patient Wards. Both architecture and medicine are well established disciplines, but they have little in common in terms of the mode of knowledge construction and practice. This induced much intellectual exploration and research interest in conducting this study. The process has provided an important reference for cross disciplinary studies between the architectural and medical domains.
In the field of Civil Engineering, the content of reinforcement concrete design course (RC course) has complicated design procedures and many difficult specifications to recognize, so most of the students regard the RC course a tough course, and teachers very often find the class time insufficient. Also, teachers of the RC course usually spend a lot of time in organizing the examinations for handling tedious calculations and complicated logical reasoning. Furthermore, correcting examination papers with partial scoring takes even more time of the teacher’s. Therefore, the objective of this research is to design and develop a partial scoring assessment system to meet the needs in engineering design courses, such as the RC course. This assessment system can generate test items with variable parameters. It also supports inference diagnosis on the examinee’s misconceptions and gives partial scores in grading the examination. In this research, the example test subject is the analysis of rectangular reinforced concrete beam with single layer steel bars.
In this contribution, the design of an analysis environment is presented, that supports an analyst to come to a decision within a gradual collaborative planning process. An analyst represents a project manager, planner or any other person, involved in the planning process. Today, planning processes are managed by several geographically distributed planners and project managers. Thus, complexity of such a process rises even more. Prediction of consequences of many planning decisions is not possible, in particular since assessment of a planning advance is not trivial. There have to be considered several viewpoints, that depend on individual perceptions. In the following, methods are presented to realize planning decision support.
Seit ihren Anfängen im ausgehenden 19. Jh. ist der brandenburgischen Hausforschung ein Phänomen in der Entwicklung des ländlichen Wohnhauses bekannt, das in der vorliegenden Arbeit als Typenwandel bezeichnet wird: Zahlreiche Landschaften der ehemaligen Kurmark Brandenburg wurden bis in das 18. Jh. hinein von einem giebelständigen Haustyp - dem sogenannten Märkischen Mittelflurhaus - geprägt. Im Verlauf des 18. und 19. jh. wurde dieser von einem traufständigen Haustyp - dem sogenannten Mitteldeutschen Ernhaus - >verdrängt<. Dieser Typenwandel ist wie jeder Wandel einer tradierten Hausform auf einen Komplex verschiedener Faktoren und Einflussgrößen zurückzuführen. Über diese Faktoren und Einflussgrößen bestehen in der bisherigen regionalen Hausforschung folgende Thesen: Zum einen wird angenommen, dass das Vorbild der im Rahmen der friderizianischen Kolonisation seit der Mitte des 18. Jh. zahlreich erbauten, traufständigen Kolonistenhäuser diesen Typenwandel beeinflusst oder ausgelöst habe. Zum anderen seien die baupolizeilichen Vorschriften und der Einfluss der preußischen Landbauschule - vertreten durch das Oberbaudepartement - ein auslösender oder beschleunigender Faktor gewesen. Aufgabe der Untersuchung ist es, diese Thesen anhand eines geeigneten Untersuchungsgebietes zu diskutieren. Als solches eignete sich das Oderbruch insbesondere, weil es das größte zusammenhängende Siedlungsgebiet auf deutscher Seite darstellt, das unter der Regentschaft Friedrichs des Großen kolonisiert wurde, und seine allmähliche Trockenlegung seit der Mitte des 18. Jh. von intensiven obrigkeitlichen Eingriffen begleitet war. Mit der zusätzlichen Abgrenzung der untersuchten Hausformen auf diejenigen der ländlichen Mittelschicht, d.h. auf die Häuser der Bauern, Fischer und Kossäten, basiert die zentrale stratigrafische Untersuchung des Wandlungsprozesses einerseits auf durch die Autorin selbst erarbeiteter Bauforschung am rezenten Hausbestand und andererseits auf der Auswertung umfangreichen Archivmaterials. Der durch zahlreiche Übergangsformen nachweisbare Prozess der Herausbildung des jüngeren Haustyps aus dem älteren Haustyp heraus widerlegt die bisherige Annahme, dass der Typenwandel lediglich eine Grenzverschiebung zwischen den geografischen Verbreitungsgebieten zweier frühneuzeitlicher Haustypen gewesen sei. Die archivalische Überlieferung zur friderizianischen Kolonisation, zum ländlichen Baugeschehen im ausgehenden 18. und beginnenden 19. Jh. sowie zur obrigkeitlichen Reglementierung des >Unterthanenbauwesens< erbringt den eindeutigen Nachweis, dass weder das Vorbild der Kolonistenhäuser noch irgendeine Form der obrigkeitlichen Einflussnahme für den Wandel vom giebelständigen zum traufständigen Haustyp von Bedeutung waren. Vielmehr erweisen sich die Auswirkungen der Agrarreformen auf die bäuerlichen Betriebe als der ausschlaggebende Faktor für den Typenwandel. Die bisher angewandten Begriffe zur Bezeichnung der Haustypen stellen sich im Ergebnis der Untersuchung nicht nur als irreführend sondern falsch heraus. Die Arbeit eröffnet deshalb eine Debatte zur Neudefinition der Typenbegriffe innerhalb der regionalen Hausforschung.
Der architektonische Raum wird als ein Medium der Kommunikation im Kontext der >neuen< Medien begriffen, aus der Erkenntnis, dass er schon immer ein Medium war und aus einer komplexen Medienstruktur in Abhängigkeit von anderen Medien besteht. Im Prozess von Handlung und Kommunikation ist der architektonische Raum das Medium, das räumliche Nähe von Individuen über alle Sinne und das Bewusstsein gleichzeitig intensiv ermöglicht. Der architektonische Raum als immersives Kommunikationsmedium erreicht im Zeitalter der >neuen< Medien eine neue Dimension, indem mehr und andere Wirklichkeitsalternativen der Kommunikation zur Verfügung stehen. N. Luhmann folgend, wird die Architektur aus der Sicht der Form/Medium-Differenz systemtheoretisch als strukturierter Möglichkeitsraum betrachtet. Der Raum ist das Medium für Formen des architektonischen Raumes, in dem Architektur überhaupt erst wirksam wird. Umgekehrt sind die Formen des architektonischen Raumes Medien für die Wahrnehmung einer Vielzahl von räumlichen Wirklichkeiten. Eine Fassade aus Stein oder Glas ist gebaute Form und kann als Medium Information kommunizieren. Medien werden ihrer Bestimmung um so besser gerecht, je mehr sie sich der Aufmerksamkeit entziehen und wie transparente Fenster hinter der Oberfläche der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung zurücktreten. Als >unwahrnehmbares< Medium ist der architektonische Raum damit eine hintergründige >Wirkungsmacht<, eine Bühne für die Entfaltung von Wirkung, Atmosphäre und Bewegung. Seine physische Wirklichkeit war schon immer durch virtuelle Wirklichkeiten oder Realitäten entgrenzt, die durch Techniken und Technologien der Simulation als künstliche Welten wahrnehmbar und kommunizierbar werden. Dies kann an tradierten Beispielen der gotischen Kathedrale, dem Panorama, den panoptischen Räumen, dem Theater, Kino oder den kontinuierlichen Räumen von der Moderne bis heute aufgezeigt weren. Virtuelle Räume gotischer Glasbilder oder barocker Decken- und Wandbilder im Medium des architektonischen Raumes sind uns geläufig. Die Immersion, das Eintauchen in diese virtuellen Wirklichkeitsspären löst die Wahrnehmung der eigenen körperlichen Präsenz in ihnen aus. Das Potential des virtuellen Raumes der Architektur besteht im Vergleich zu anderen virtuellen Realitäten von Text, Bild oder digitalen Medien in seiner Gebundenheit an die physische, räumliche Reizstruktur, der er die Eindringlichkeit und Komplexität seiner Wirkung verdankt. Es werden unterschiedliche Wechselwirkungen und gemeinsame Entwicklungen von zeitgenössischen Beispielen der Architektur mit den >neuen< Medien aufgezeigt. In der »sensitiven Wand« wird die physische Raumgrenze durch die Integration neuer Techniken und Technologien digitaler, elektronischer Medien etwas extrem Flexibles und Formbares in Interaktion mit dem Benutzer. Der H2O Pavillon (Oosterhuis und NOX, 1997) ist ein Beispiel dafür. Der ausgeprägt polysensorische Immersionsraum steht für die Einheit von digitaler und architektonischer Simulation. Die metaphorische Welt von Höhle und Quelle des Thermalbades Vals (P.Zumthor, 1996) ist die räumliche Reflexion auf die metaphorische Struktur virtueller Räume der >neuen< Medien. Die simulierte Wirklichkeit in den Medien Wasser, Stein und architektonischer Raum produziert schöpferisch den polysensorischen immersiven Zugang in die virtuellen Welten >authentischer< physischer Umgebung. Das >Sichtbare< im Medium Raum der Architektur ist ohne das >Unsichtbare< nicht zu begreifen bzw. das sinnlich Wahrnehmbare nicht ohne das Unwahrnehmbare. Das Erkennen dieser Relation von Form und Medium ermöglicht die Formulierung des neuen Begriffes des medialen Raumes der Architektur, der zur Basis für eine Medientheorie der Architektur wird, als Sichtweise der Entgrenzung des physischen Raumes durch den virtuellen Raum für die subjektive Wahrnehmung, Handlung und Kommunikation.
The paper investigates accuracy of deflection predictions made by the finite element package ATENA and design code methods ACI and EC2. Deflections have been calculated for a large number of experimental reinforced concrete beams reported by three investigators. Statistical parameters have been established for each of the technique at different load levels, separately for the beams with small and moderate reinforcement ratio.
Many construction and facilities management Web sites can be found on the Internet. The interested parties on construction and facilities management Web sites can find databases of best practices, calculators, analyzers, software, expert and decision support systems, neural networks, etc. Technological innovation mainly through changes in the availability of information and communication technology inclusive databases of best practices, calculators, analyzers, software, neural networks, decision support and expert systems that have been provided by a variety of new services developed by the construction and facilities management sectors. Most of all calculators, analyzers, software, decision support and expert systems, neural networks and on-line systems seek to find out how to make the most economic decisions and most of all these decisions are intended only for economic objectives. Alternatives under evaluation have to be evaluated not only from the economic position, but take into consideration qualitative, technical, technological and other characteristics as well. Based on the analysis of the existing calculators, analyzers, information, expert and decision support systems, neural networks and in order to determine most efficient versions of best practices a Decision Support Web-Based System for Construction Innovation (IDSS) was developed by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.