Structural optimization in steel structures, algorithms and applications

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TEchMA2020: 3rd International Conference on Technologies for the Wellbeing and Sustainable Manufacturing Solutions: book of abstracts

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Book of abstracts of the 2nd International Conference of TEMA: mobilizing projects

Based on its Human Capital and Capacities, the Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation (TEMA) embraces a mission aiming to contribute to a sustainable industry, with specially focus on the surrounding SMEs, and to the wellbeing of society. Sustainable manufacturing aims to contribute to the development of a sustainable industry by developments and innovations on manufacturing engineering and technologies, to increase productivity, improve products quality and reduce waste in production processes. Technologies for the Wellbeing wishes to contribute to the wellbeing of society by the development of supportive engineering systems focusing on people and their needs and intending to improve their quality of life. TEMA intends to maximize its national and international impact in terms of scientific productivity and its transfer to society by tackling the relevant challenges of our time. TEMA is aware of the major challenges of our days, not only confined to scientific issues but also the societal ones, (a strategic pillar of the Horizon 2020 program), at the same time placing an effort to have its research disseminated, in high impact journals to the international scientific community. (...)publishe

Development of Multi-Scale City Building Energy Model for Urban Climate Resilience

In the past decades, the world has experienced rapid urbanization that caused increasing climate change challenges, pollution, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. More frequent and more prolonged extreme weather events such as heatwave and cold-wave and urban heat island phenomena are some negative impacts of climate change. The building sector is an essential source of urban energy consumption, GHG emission, and Urban Heat Island (UHI) formation. Different energy efficiency measures can be implemented to reduce building energy consumption, such as retrofitting existing building stock and deploying new technologies. These scenarios will also contribute to the mitigation of UHI, heatwaves, and climate change. Urban building energy models are simulation tools developed to study these kinds of problems. There are several challenges with existing Urban Building Energy Modelling (UBEM) tools, including creating a 3D model of buildings, estimating buildings’ properties, and using urban microclimate data for simulation. On the other hand, accurate building energy simulation and fluxes from buildings to the atmosphere can impact forecasting accuracy by numerical weather prediction tools. Therefore, developing a multi-scale integrated urban building energy and climate simulation tool is essential for modeling both buildings’ energy performance and atmospheric fields. In this work, a new urban building energy model called City Building Energy Model (CityBEM) is developed to solve UBEMs' current challenges. First, a building-scale energy and airflow simulation model is developed for modeling a single building. It is based on a coupled thermal/airflow multi-zone network model. The multi-zone network model is then modified for calculation of urban scale buildings’ energy performance. A new method is developed to create the 3D model of buildings by integrating buildings’ footprint data obtained from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft and building height information by Google Earth Application Programming Interface (API). An archetype library is developed for the estimation of buildings’ non-geometrical properties. Buildings are classified based on usage type and age obtained from city shapefile datasets. The geometrical and non-geometrical datasets are joined using the QGIS tool and Mapbox platform. To use local microclimate data for buildings’ energy performance, CityBEM is integrated with different microclimate simulation tools. First, CityBEM is fully integrated with the CityFFD tool to model the two-way interaction between buildings and microclimate. In the second method, a multi-scale urban climate and buildings energy simulation tool is developed by one-way integration of CityBEM with 3D Global Environmental Multiscale Model (GEM) and Surface Prediction System (SPS) developed by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). The one-way multi-scale model cannot capture the impact of CityBEM on the atmospheric fields; therefore, to model this impact, the CityBEM is added as a new module to the SPS model. SPS includes a Town Energy Balance (TEB) scheme for modeling the urban surface. In this thesis, CityBEM is added to the TEB for modeling the buildings. Using the developed TEB-CityBEM model in GEM simulations, near-surface forecasting accuracy can be improved, and buildings’ energy simulation is added as a new feature to the GEM model. The multi-scale model can be used to study different mitigation strategies such as retrofitting existing buildings, modeling natural ventilation and its impact on reducing energy consumption, model new technologies to reduce energy consumption, etc. The TEB-CityBEM model can also be added to the air quality model of ECCC called GEM-MACH to study the impact of urban building modeling on air quality in urban areas. Finally, due to the importance of aerosol transmission of covid-19 in indoor spaces, it is essential to develop a model to study the impact of different mitigation strategies on reducing the risk of infection in the rooms and their corresponding energy consumption effects. In this thesis, a city-scale model (CityRPI) is developed to estimate airborne transmission of COVID-19 in indoor spaces. The CityRPI model is integrated with the CityBEM. The integrated model is applied to Montreal, and the impact of mitigation strategies on the infection risk and energy consumption is studied for different types of buildings

Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Both New and Rehabilitated

Buildings are one of the main causes of the emission of greenhouse gases in the world. Europe alone is responsible for more than 30% of emissions, or about 900 million tons of CO2 per year. Heating and air conditioning are the main cause of greenhouse gas emissions in buildings. Most buildings currently in use were built with poor energy efficiency criteria or, depending on the country and the date of construction, none at all. Therefore, regardless of whether construction regulations are becoming stricter, the real challenge nowadays is the energy rehabilitation of existing buildings. It is currently a priority to reduce (or, ideally, eliminate) the waste of energy in buildings and, at the same time, supply the necessary energy through renewable sources. The first can be achieved by improving the architectural design, construction methods, and materials used, as well as the efficiency of the facilities and systems; the second can be achieved through the integration of renewable energy (wind, solar, geothermal, etc.) in buildings. In any case, regardless of whether the energy used is renewable or not, the efficiency must always be taken into account. The most profitable and clean energy is that which is not consumed