Engineering Commons^™

Reduced Order Modeling For Virtual Building Commissioning, Sean Rosin

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Model order reduction can help reduce the time and monetary constraints associated with building commissioning and significantly decrease overall building energy consumption through virtual commissioning. This research aimed to determine the effectiveness of using reduced order models to simulate the overall building energy consumption, and to estimate the energy savings from control-based commissioning recommendations.

A case study building was modeled using a ‘Lumped RC’ thermal model with three thermal resistances and capacitances (3R3C) for the building interior and a 2R1C model describing the building foundation. Due to energy consumption being dependent on building systems, this model was coupled with a ...

Design And Probabilistic Analysis Of Mid- And High-Rise Wood Buildings Subjected To Earthquake Excitations, Shucheng Yang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mass timber products, such as the glulam or cross laminated timber (CLT), are less frequently used construction materials at present for mid-rise and high-rise buildings. The feasibility and possible advantages of applying timber materials for constructing mid- and high-rise buildings are under investigation. One of the issues that needs to be addressed for the use of heavy timber materials is the safety of such constructions under seismic excitations. To address this issue, the nonlinear inelastic seismic responses and capacity curves of a wood buildings must be assessed. For this, the 10-, 15- and 20-storey buildings are designed using heavy timber ...

Model Predictive Control (Mpc) For Enhancing Building And Hvac System Energy Efficiency: Problem Formulation, Applications And Opportunities, Gianluca Serale, Massimo Fiorentini, Alfonso Capozzoli, Daniele Bernardini, Alberto Bemporad

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In the last few years, the application of Model Predictive Control (MPC) for energy management in buildings has received significant attention from the research community. MPC is becoming more and more viable because of the increase in computational power of building automation systems and the availability of a significant amount of monitored building data. MPC has found successful implementation in building thermal regulation, fully exploiting the potential of building thermal mass. Moreover, MPC has been positively applied to active energy storage systems, as well as to the optimal management of on-site renewable energy sources. MPC also opens up several opportunities ...

Building Entry Flood Barrier, Richard Esker, Shannon Mccall, Andrew Udovich, Brian Foust

Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project is to develop a flood barrier that would resist flood water from entering through the doorways of a building. The goal is to mitigate extensive flooding within a structure. After the disastrous weather events that impacted American citizens late in the year of 2017, the team was inspired to develop a project to help disaster victims. Through extensive preliminary and market research, it was discovered that flooding is a serious issue that affects people all over the world. A product to stop flooding could benefit people in developed countries, but it could also help citizens ...

Numerical Modeling Of Tornado-Like Vortex And Its Interaction With Bluff- Bodies, Zoheb Nasir

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The study the flow structure of tornado-like vortices and their impact over engineering structures is important due to the extent of tornado induced fatalities and damages observed each year in North America and around the world. In the present study, a numerical modeling approach inspired by the WindEEE Dome and the modified version of Ward’s Tornado Simulator has been developed. Using a full-scale numerical simulator, tornadoes of different intensities have been simulated for different swirl ratio values to study flow structures in comparison with previous studies. The effect of topographic features on the tornado-like vortex has been investigated for ...

Dynamic Exergy Analysis For The Thermal Storage Optimization Of The Building Envelope, Valentina Bonetti, Georgios Kokogiannakis

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

As a measure of energy "quality", exergy is meaningful for comparing the potential for thermal storage. Systems containing the same amount of energy could have considerably different capabilities in matching a demand profile, and exergy measures this difference. Exergy stored in the envelope of buildings is central in sustainability because the environment could be an unlimited source of energy if its interaction with the envelope is optimised for maintaining the indoor conditions within comfort ranges. Since the occurring phenomena are highly fluctuating, a dynamic exergy analysis is required; however, dynamic exergy modelling is complex and has not hitherto been implemented ...

Thermal Comfort Evaluation Of A Mixed-Mode Ventilated Office Building With Advanced Natural Ventilation And Underfloor Air Distribution Systems, Xiang Deng, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Zhenjun Ma, Paul Cooper

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This study uses field monitoring and post occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys to investigate the indoor thermal comfort of an office building that is located in subtropical zone. The building is special as it combines advanced natural ventilation (ANV) strategies and underfloor air distribution (UFAD) systems. A comparison between a static thermal comfort model and a dynamic thermal comfort model is also conducted. The results show that the thermal comfort conditions in the case study building are satisfactory in summer while in winter there is evidence of thermal discomfort. For the case study building, the static thermal comfort model gives outputs ...

Impact Of Structural Design Solutions On The Energy And Thermal Performance Of An Australian Office Building, Mehdi Robati, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Timothy J. Mccarthy

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Concrete is a heavyweight construction material whose high thermal mass could increase the thermal storage capacity of a building envelope and in turn affect indoor thermal comfort. Selecting an appropriate method for concrete construction and form could also affect the total energy performance and thermal comfort of a building, a fact that is often overlooked by structural engineers. This study presents the results of energy simulations of the potential impact that concrete construction forms, in particular two slab types, and structural materials have on the energy consumption of archetypal commercial office buildings in five major Australia cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra ...

A Novel Approach To Measure, Understand, And Assess The Thermal Environment In Grow-Finish Swine Facilities, Brett Carlos Ramirez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The thermal environment (TE) inside swine production systems substantially affects animal performance as well as facility natural resource usage; hence, our measurement, understanding, and assessment of the TE must be advanced to sustainably meet the animal-protein demand of the growing global population. The TE describes the parameters that influence heat exchange between an animal and its surroundings, with maximum animal performance achieved when minimal thermoregulatory effort is required. Instrumentation and analysis techniques connecting the impact of the TE on total heat loss and subsequently, to animal performance in intensive housing systems are limited. Therefore, the goals of this dissertation research ...

Navigational Complexity Within Building Codes, James Stephen Mclean

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The premise, that building codes have become too complex, has been discussed, commented on, and documented by practicing engineers; however, prior to this research there was little scientific evidence that codes have increased in complexity over time. There are many aspects of building codes that are complicated, and this reflects a combination of the inherent complexity of building design and the dynamical processes that produce the codes. This research focuses on navigational complexity and specifically the aspects that can be quantified to demonstrate current codes are more complex than their predecessors. Navigational complexity is defined as the complexity created by ...

Something Wonderful In My Back Yard: The Social Impetus For Group Self- Building, Emma Elizabeth Heffernan, Pieter De Wilde

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The housing crisis in the United Kingdom, as Barker (2004) identifies, has become shorthand for a chronic lack of suitable and affordable housing - in both the home ownership and rental sectors - and the undersupply and diminishment of social housing stock (Barker, 2004; Jefferys et al., 2014). What has also become clear is that the mainstream housebuilding sector - speculative housing development - has not risen to the task of ameliorating this crisis. Consequently, there is increasing marginalisation within the housing and land economy, with many people finding that their housing needs cannot be met by the sector. This chapter focuses on the ...

Transformation Model With Constraints For High Accuracy Of 2d-3d Building Registration In Aerial Imagery, Guoqing Zhou, Qingli Luo, Wenhan Xie, Tao Yue, Jingjin Huang, Yuzhong Shen

Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper proposes a novel rigorous transformation model for 2D-3D registration to address the difficult problem of obtaining a sufficient number of well-distributed ground control points (GCPs) in urban areas with tall buildings. The proposed model applies two types of geometric constraints, co-planarity and perpendicularity, to the conventional photogrammetric collinearity model. Both types of geometric information are directly obtained from geometric building structures, with which the geometric constraints are automatically created and combined into the conventional transformation model. A test field located in downtown Denver, Colorado, is used to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of the proposed method. The comparison ...

Development Of A Novel Multi-Layer Mre Isolator For Suppression Of Building Vibrations Under Seismic Events, Jian Yang, Shuaishuai Sun, Tongfei Tian, Weihua Li, Haiping Du, Gursel Alici, Masami Nakano

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Protecting civil engineering structures from uncontrollable events such as earthquakes while maintaining their structural integrity and serviceability is very important; this paper describes the performance of a stiffness softening magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) isolator in a scaled three storey building. In order to construct a closed-loop system, a scaled three storey building was designed and built according to the scaling laws, and then four MRE isolator prototypes were fabricated and utilised to isolate the building from the motion induced by a scaled El Centro earthquake. Fuzzy logic was used to output the current signals to the isolators, based on the real-time ...

Nano-Enhanced Phase Change Materials For Improved Building Performance, Zhenjun Ma, Wenye Lin, Mohammed I. Sohel

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Nano-enhanced phase change materials (PCMs) have attracted increasing attention to address one of the key barriers (i.e. low thermal conductivity) to the wide adoption of PCMs in many industrial applications. This paper discusses the generic problem and key issues associated with appropriately using this new class of materials in buildings for effective thermal management and improved energy performance. An overview on major recent development and application of nano-enhanced PCMs as thermal energy storage media is provided. A case study based on a PCM ceiling ventilation system integrated with solar photovoltaic thermal (PVT) collectors is then performed to evaluate the ...

Delivering Sustainable Building Projects - Challenges, Reality And Success, Haleh Rasekh, Timothy J. Mccarthy

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This research concerns the delivery of sustainable building projects. These projects are defined as those which either attempt to achieve green ratings or are claimed to address certain sustainability issues. A key focus is to examine how the client's vision for sustainability is achieved or compromised by the practicality of construction. Two sustainability rating systems, the Australian Green Star and the Living Building Challenge from the U.S. are discussed. This research examines two projects; one university multipurpose building (SMART Infrastructure Facility); and an advanced research facility, the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC). The methodology used is semi-structured interviews ...

Building Characterisation And Retrofit Decision Support-Tools For Upgrading Homes Of Low-Income Older Australians, Paul Cooper, Clayton Mcdowell, Michael P. Tibbs, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Laia Ledo Gomis, Stephen C. Choi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper describes the development and implementation of a comprehensive methodology to select and implement energy efficiency upgrades to the homes of low-income, older (>60 years) Australians. This work was conducted as part of a project entitled, 'Energy Efficiency in the 3rd Age (EE3A)", which targeted lowincome older residents in the Illawarra Region of NSW, Australia, and was funded by an Australian Federal Government 'Low Income Energy Efficiency Program (LIEEP)' grant for AUD2.3M. The project included a social marketing and behaviour change component engaging ~650 households, and a retrofit program for a subset of ~183 of these homes. Households ...

Building A Microsimulation Model Of Heroin Use Careers In Australia, Alison Ritter, Nagesh Shukla, Marian D. Shanahan, Van Hoang Phuong, Vu Lam Cao, Pascal Perez, Michael P. Farrell

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Illicit heroin use is a worldwide problem, with significant health and social costs. Treatment is known to be effective in changing heroin use habits, but it often needs to be provided over a lifetime, with people cycling in and out of treatment. It is therefore important to capture a long-term perspective on heroin use careers. The aim of this project was to build a lifetime microsimulation model of heroin using careers. This paper describes the conceptual logic of the model, the input parameters and the verification and validation results. A microsimulation model was chosen as the most appropriate simulation platform ...

A Bottom-Up Data Collection Methodology For Characterising The Residential Building Stock In Australia, Clayton Mcdowell, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Paul Cooper, Michael P. Tibbs

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In Australia the majority of the current residential building stock has been constructed with little regard to energy consumption or thermal comfort. With only 1-2 % of Australia's building stock being replaced each year retrofitting solutions are necessary if residential energy consumption is to be reduced. Australia's records of the characteristics of its current building stock are minimal and outdated and thus these need to be renewed to enable the evaluation of retrofit upgrade strategies. Thus this paper presents a methodology and results of a bottom-up data collection tool that captured building and occupant characteristics from 200 elderly low ...

Coupling A Thermal Comfort Model With Building Simulation For User Comfort And Energy Efficiency, Katharina Boudier, Massimo Fiorentini, Sabine Hoffmann, Raghuram Kalyanam, Georgios Kokogiannakis

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper describes a methodology for coupling an advanced model of the thermo-regulatory system of the human body that describes its physiological processes, a comfort model that evaluates thermal sensation and comfort, and the ESP-r building simulation software that computes the transient thermal response of a building model. The objective of this study was to utilise the physiology and comfort models to dynamically modify the heating and cooling temperature set points of a zone controller in ESP-r, in accordance with the computed human thermal sensation and achieve realtime thermal comfort management. The comunication between the software is managed by the ...

Prefabricated Building, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

With the continuous demand for construction of new buildings, an easier, more sustainable, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly building method is necessary to save time, energy and cost. Hence, there has been an increasing need for a system such as BROAD sustainable building (BSB). A form of prefabricated building by BROAD Sustainable Building Co., LTD (BSB). It consists of flooring and ceiling, embedded shafts of ventilation, water supply & drainage, electricity and lighting. Other items include pillars, diagonal bracings, doors, windows, walls and sanitary wares, air conditioning, air quality products, lifts, building thermal insulations.

Impact Based Odor Control System, Brett C. Ramirez, Steven J. Hoff

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Conference Proceedings and Presentations

Biofilters are an effective and economically feasible technique for mitigating odor and other gaseous emissions from livestock production systems. They consist of a media containing a biofilm, where microorganisms break down compounds in livestock building exhaust air into energy and nutrients for growth and reproduction. In addition to capital costs, continuous filtering of exhaust air from mechanically ventilated buildings can be expensive and not always required, if odor is considered nuisance; thus, an automated control system was designed to filter odorous air when surrounding neighbors are most likely to be impacted and bypass the biofilter when odor impact potential is ...

Software Defined Intelligent Building, Rui Xue, Xin Huang, Jie Zhang, Yulin Lu, Ge Wu, Zheng Yan

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The networks of intelligent building are usually consist of a great number of smart devices. Since many smart devices only support on-site configuration and upgrade, and communication between devices could be observed and even altered by attackers, efficiency and security are two key concerns in maintaining and managing the devices used in intelligent building networks. In this paper, the authors apply the technology of software defined networking to satisfy the requirement for efficiency in intelligent building networks. More specific, a protocol stack in smart devices that support OpenFlow is designed. In addition, the authors designed the lightweight security mechanism with ...

Closure To “Another Look At The L’Ambiance Plaza Collapse,” By Rachel Martin And Norbert J. Delatte, Norbert J. Delatte

Norbert Delatte

No abstract provided.

Analyzing The Leed Certification & Energy Usage Of The Peter Irving Wold Center, Andrea Schwartz

Honors Theses

This report discusses the Leadership in Environmental & Energy Design (LEED) Gold certification of the Peter Irving Wold Center, located in Schenectady N.Y. The credits that the Wold Center achieved in the LEED process are discussed as well as what credits were not achieved. Each credit is described in detail and the feasibility of implementing the credits that were not achieved is considered. The feasibility of achieving Platinum certification is discussed. It is important to note that this analysis, while post-construction, is determining whether or not the building could have achieved Platinum certification during the planning and building process. A ...

Optimal Control Of Energy Efficient Buildings, Cale David Nelson

Masters Theses

The building sector consumes a large part of the energy used in the United States and is responsible for nearly 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, it is economically and environmentally important to reduce the building energy consumption to realize massive energy savings. Commercial buildings are complex, multi-physics, and highly stochastic dynamic systems. Recent work has focused on integrating modern modeling, simulation, and control techniques to solving this challenging problem. The overall focus of this thesis is directed toward designing an energy efficient building by controlling room temperature. One approach is based on a distributed parameter model represented by a ...

New Building Regulations, Ruairi Hayden

Articles

No abstract provided.

Support For The Integration Of Green Roof Constructions Within Chinese Building Energy Performance Policies, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Jo Darkwa

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Green roofs could act as a thermal buffer in buildings and offer potential energy savings. However, the energy benefits from green roofs are not usually properly recognised by traditional building energy regulations. Building energy regulations are traditionally over-simplistic during the assessment of the energy performance of complex building constructions. In the case of green roof designs, it is essential that the assessment mechanisms should not ignore the complex heat and moisture balances within the green roof layers. In this paper, dynamic energy modelling that considers the complexity within the green roof layers is adopted to guide policy makers in China ...

Building Workforce Competencies Through Complex Projects, Andrew Sense, Senevi Kiridena

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This chapter illuminates the current theories and concepts concerning complexity and the project management workforce competencies necessary to deal with it in projects. It exposes the valuable, yet underutilised, opportunities complex projects may present to develop the knowledge and competencies of a workforce to successfully manage complexity within a project space and across an organisation more generally. The theoretical implications of this analysis imply that more research is necessary to establish a framework of competencies that relate appropriately to the levels of complexity within a project. The practice implications are profound since managing complexity in projects requires a more expansive ...

Building A Railway For The 21st Century: Bringing High Speed Rail A Step Closer, Max Michell, Scott Martin, Philip G. Laird

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

High Speed Rail (HSR) operating at maximum speeds of above 250km/h with electric passenger trains are now operational in at least 11 countries. As the feasibility of building an Australian East Coast HSR network between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane is once again being examined, governments at Federal, State and Local levels need to develop complementary transport infrastructure and services to ensure the long-term financial and operational success of HSR. The lengthy time frame currently envisaged for completing the first stage of an Australian East Coast HSR network by 2035 provides a 20-year window for improving and upgrading urban and ...

Tuning Houses Through Building Management Systems, Jose Ripper Kos, Massimo Fiorentini, Paul Cooper, Felipe Miranda

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper departs from an analogy of sailing race instruments to demonstrate the potential of automation systems on the house performance and, more important, on impacting households for a more sustainable behavior. Sailing instruments have positively influenced the results on experienced sailors' speed and ultimately have confirmed their observations on nature cycles. We have presented two research projects for the development of Building Management Systems for a house that relies mostly on natural ventilation and thermal mass and another one, based on a complex conditioning system with a solar assited HVAC system, connected to a Phase Change Material thermal storage ...