An integrated framework for multi-criteria optimization of thin concrete shells at early design stages

Thin shells are crucially dependent on their shape in order to obtain proper structural performance. In this context, the optimal shape will guarantee performance and safety requirements, while minimizing the use of materials, as well as construction/maintenance costs. Thin shell design is a team-based, multidisciplinary, and iterative process, which requires a high level of interaction between the various parties involved, especially between the Architecture and Engineering teams. As a result of technological development, novel concepts and tools become available to support this process. On the one hand, concepts like Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) show the potential to have a high impact on multidisciplinary environments such as the one in question, supporting the early decision-making process with the availability of as much information as possible. On the other hand, optimization techniques and tools should be highlighted, as they fit the needs and requirements of both the shell shape definition process and the IPD concept. These can be used not only to support advanced design stages, but also to facilitate the initial formulation of shape during the early interactions between architect and structural engineer from an IPD point of view. This paper proposes a methodology aimed at enhancing the interactive and iterative process associated with the early stages of thin shell design, supported by an integrated framework. The latter is based on several tools, namely Rhinoceros 3D, Grasshopper, and Robot Structural Analysis. In order to achieve full integration of the support tools, a custom devised module was developed, so as to allow interoperability between Grasshopper and Robot Structural Analysis. The system resorts to various technologies targeted at improving the shell shape definition process, such as formfinding techniques, parametric and generative models, as well as shape optimization techniques that leverage on multi criteria evolutionary algorithms. The proposed framework is implemented in a set of fictitious scenarios, in which the best thin reinforced concrete shell structures are sought according to given design requirements. Results stemming from this implementation emphasize its interoperability, flexibility, and capability to promote interaction between the elements of the design team, ultimately outputting a set of diverse and creative shell shapes, and thus supporting the pre-design process.The authors gratefully acknowledge the kind participation of Arch. Tânia Silva. This work is also partially financed by FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the projects POCI-01-0145-FEDER007633 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016841 (PTDC/ECM-EST/1056/2014).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Políticas de Copyright de Publicações Científicas em Repositórios Institucionais: O Caso do INESC TEC

A progressiva transformação das práticas científicas, impulsionada pelo desenvolvimento das novas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC), têm possibilitado aumentar o acesso à informação, caminhando gradualmente para uma abertura do ciclo de pesquisa. Isto permitirá resolver a longo prazo uma adversidade que se tem colocado aos investigadores, que passa pela existência de barreiras que limitam as condições de acesso, sejam estas geográficas ou financeiras. Apesar da produção científica ser dominada, maioritariamente, por grandes editoras comerciais, estando sujeita às regras por estas impostas, o Movimento do Acesso Aberto cuja primeira declaração pública, a Declaração de Budapeste (BOAI), é de 2002, vem propor alterações significativas que beneficiam os autores e os leitores. Este Movimento vem a ganhar importância em Portugal desde 2003, com a constituição do primeiro repositório institucional a nível nacional. Os repositórios institucionais surgiram como uma ferramenta de divulgação da produção científica de uma instituição, com o intuito de permitir abrir aos resultados da investigação, quer antes da publicação e do próprio processo de arbitragem (preprint), quer depois (postprint), e, consequentemente, aumentar a visibilidade do trabalho desenvolvido por um investigador e a respetiva instituição. O estudo apresentado, que passou por uma análise das políticas de copyright das publicações científicas mais relevantes do INESC TEC, permitiu não só perceber que as editoras adotam cada vez mais políticas que possibilitam o auto-arquivo das publicações em repositórios institucionais, como também que existe todo um trabalho de sensibilização a percorrer, não só para os investigadores, como para a instituição e toda a sociedade. A produção de um conjunto de recomendações, que passam pela implementação de uma política institucional que incentive o auto-arquivo das publicações desenvolvidas no âmbito institucional no repositório, serve como mote para uma maior valorização da produção científica do INESC TEC.The progressive transformation of scientific practices, driven by the development of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which made it possible to increase access to information, gradually moving towards an opening of the research cycle. This opening makes it possible to resolve, in the long term, the adversity that has been placed on researchers, which involves the existence of barriers that limit access conditions, whether geographical or financial. Although large commercial publishers predominantly dominate scientific production and subject it to the rules imposed by them, the Open Access movement whose first public declaration, the Budapest Declaration (BOAI), was in 2002, proposes significant changes that benefit the authors and the readers. This Movement has gained importance in Portugal since 2003, with the constitution of the first institutional repository at the national level. Institutional repositories have emerged as a tool for disseminating the scientific production of an institution to open the results of the research, both before publication and the preprint process and postprint, increase the visibility of work done by an investigator and his or her institution. The present study, which underwent an analysis of the copyright policies of INESC TEC most relevant scientific publications, allowed not only to realize that publishers are increasingly adopting policies that make it possible to self-archive publications in institutional repositories, all the work of raising awareness, not only for researchers but also for the institution and the whole society. The production of a set of recommendations, which go through the implementation of an institutional policy that encourages the self-archiving of the publications developed in the institutional scope in the repository, serves as a motto for a greater appreciation of the scientific production of INESC TEC