Design of sustainable industrial systems by integrated modeling of factory building and manufacturing processes

This paper presents an integrated approach that combines ‘Sustainable Building Design’ tools and ‘Sustainable Manufacturing Process’ tools to create a tool for the design of sustainable manufacturing systems.’ Currently no such integrated tools are in use by manufacturers to assess energy performance, identify improvement areas and help suggest actions. This paper describes the development of a tool that through such integrated modelling can help identify improvements via its library of tactics. These sustainable manufacturing tactics have to account for location and time, as well as production process, in a manner that is not currently supported by either manufacturing process simulation tools, or building energy tools. Through case study applications, the integrated modelling of real world industrial processes is demonstrated, from target and boundary settings, mapping (manufacturing process systems, material flow, surrounding buildings and facilities), data collection, simulation, improvement opportunities and optimisation

Investigation of Energy Modelling Methods of Multiple Fidelities: A Case Study

Building energy modelling has become an integral part of building design due to energy consumption concerns in sustainable buildings. As such, energy modelling methods have evolved to the point of including higher-order physics, complex interconnected components and sub-systems. Despite advances in computer capacity, the cost of generating and running complex energy simulations makes it impractical to rely exclusively on such higher fidelity energy modelling for exploring a large set of design alternatives. This challenge of exploring a large set of alternatives efficiently might be overcome by using surrogate models to generalize across the large design space from an evaluation of a sparse subset of design alternatives by higher fidelity energy modelling or by using a set of multi-fidelity models in combination to efficiently evaluate the design space. Given there exists a variety of building energy modelling methods for energy estimation, multi-fidelity modelling could be a promising approach for broad exploration of design spaces to identify sustainable building designs. Hence, this study investigates energy estimates from three energy modelling methods (modified bin, degree day, EnergyPlus) over a range of design variables and climatic regions. The goal is to better understand how their outputs compare to each other and whether they might be suitable for a multi-fidelity modelling approach. The results show that modified bin and degree day methods yield energy use estimates of similar magnitude to each other but are typically higher than results from EnergyPlus. The differences in the results were traced, as expected, to the heating and cooling end-uses, and specifically to the heat gain and heat loss through opaque (i.e., walls, floors, roofs) and window surfaces. The observed trends show the potential for these methods to be used for multi-fidelity modelling, thereby allowing building designers to broadly consider and compare more design alternatives earlier in the design process

System Dynamics (SD) Modelling for Carbon Emission Reduction in Building through Building Information Models (BIM) of Different Roof Insulation Systems

The demand for carbon emission reduction in building design, construction and operations sector with negligible environmental impact is expanding. Increasing energy expenses and awareness of ecological issues are the impetuses for such high concern. The advantages of ecological and human wellbeing from sustainable approaches or green technology such as green buildings have been broadly perceived. Thus, through this study, the author has investigated the effectiveness of the application of the cool roof insulation systems in reducing the carbon-emission in building. In achieving these goals, the author has utilized the application of Building Information Models (BIM) to analyse the energy-usage and carbon-emission reduction in building. In addition, the System Dynamics (SD) Modelling is incorporated to develop the simulation model for carbon-emission reduction in building with different roof insulation systems design

Knowledge modelling of emerging technologies for sustainable building development

In the quest for improved performance of buildings and mitigation of climate change, governments are encouraging the use of innovative sustainable building technologies. Consequently, there is now a large amount of information and knowledge on sustainable building technologies over the web. However, internet searches often overwhelm practitioners with millions of pages that they browse to identify suitable innovations to use on their projects. It has been widely acknowledged that the solution to this problem is the use of a machine-understandable language with rich semantics - the semantic web technology. This research investigates the extent to which semantic web technologies can be exploited to represent knowledge about sustainable building technologies, and to facilitate system decision-making in recommending appropriate choices for use in different situations. To achieve this aim, an exploratory study on sustainable building and semantic web technologies was conducted. This led to the use of two most popular knowledge engineering methodologies - the CommonKADS and "Ontology Development 101" in modelling knowledge about sustainable building technology and PV -system domains. A prototype system - Photo Voltaic Technology ONtology System (PV -TONS) - that employed sustainable building technology and PV -system domain knowledge models was developed and validated with a case study. While the sustainable building technology ontology and PV -TONS can both be used as generic knowledge models, PV -TONS is extended to include applications for the design and selection of PV -systems and components. Although its focus was on PV -systems, the application of semantic web technologies can be extended to cover other areas of sustainable building technologies. The major challenges encountered in this study are two-fold. First, many semantic web technologies are still under development and very unstable, thus hindering their full exploitation. Second, the lack of learning resources in this field steepen the learning curve and is a potential set-back in using semantic web technologies

Scale-up and sustainability evaluation of biopolymer production from citrus waste offering carbon capture and utilisation pathway

Invited for this month's cover picture is the group of Dr Miao Guo from Department of Chemical Engineering at the Imperial College London (UK). The cover picture shows modelling research on the co-polymerisation of waste-sourced limonene oxide with CO2 to produce poly(limonene carbonate), which offers a sustainable pathway to achieve carbon capture and utilisation. A computational approach to process design was integrated with sustainability evaluation to model this synthetic pathway and identify the environmental-damaging and performance-limiting steps for further improvement. Our research highlights the potential of closed-loop manufacturing systems with waste recovery, which is instrumental in building a sustainable circular economy

CEC research activities for the period 2003-2005

The Civil Engineering Research Center of the University of Minho will carry out research at an internationally recognised standard of excellence in the following areas: - Construction Materials, dealing with achieving sustainable materials focussing in durability design, use of eco-efficient materials and techniques for materials repair; - Construction Processes & Management, dealing with construction management, building physics and construction technology focusing on sustainable development and building rehabilitation; - Geotechnics, dealing with properties and modelling of natural ground (soil and rocks) and treated materials, focussing in environmental aspects and structures for transportation infrastructures; - Highways, dealing with pavement materials characterisation, pavement recycling, pavement design and pavement evaluation, both functional and structural; - Hydraulics, dealing with modelling techniques of processes in natural environments and engineered systems and decision support systems for sustainable use of water resources; - Structures, dealing with innovation, safety, strengthening and conservation of structures, focussing in new concrete and masonry structures, FRP, ancient structures and bridges; - Urban and Regional Planning, dealing with land use planning and policy, built environment and urban quality of life, and stressing the evaluation aspects. The management of research is the responsibility of the scientific committee, on which a representative of each group is represented. It is also under the auspicious of the Advisory Committee. The Center provides a core of people with internationally recognised expertise in the areas of Civil Engineering, particularly through PhD programs and post-doctoral training. The dynamism of the staff provides a stimulating atmosphere that will attract research students and professionals assuring excellent academic and technical support of their studies. A financial goal is to attract research funding from industry and other National and European research grants to continue its operation at an excellence research level.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Study of alternatives for the design of sustainable low-income housing in Brazil

[EN] Despite insufficient housing facilities, particularly in developing countries, construction systems are generally selected intuitively or based on conventional solutions sanctioned by practice. The present study aims to evaluate different options for the design of low-income housing in Brazil by integrating the life cycle assessment (LCA) into the decision-making process. To achieve this objective, three single-family projects with different construction systems were selected and analyzed. The most sustainable design was selected through the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The considered parameters, which were obtained through a survey with professionals and customers, included cost, environmental impact, thermal comfort, construction time, and cultural acceptance. LCA and life cycle cost assessment (LCCA) were performed with the frontier¿s system considering the cradle-to-gate cycle, which included the extraction of raw materials, manufacture of building materials, and housing construction. The projects were modelled using Autodesk Revit software with the Tally application for LCA evaluation. The results indicated that light steel frame houses present a better behavior than other conventional alternatives, and the integration of building information modelling with LCA and LCCA in the design phase can lead to the development of more sustainable houses.The authors acknowledge the financial support of Universidade de Passo Fundo to the first author, the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, along with FEDER funding (Project: BIA2017-85098-R) to the second author, and the financial support of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) to the last author.Bianchi, PF.; Yepes, V.; Vitorio, PCJ.; Kripka, M. (2021). Study of alternatives for the design of sustainable low-income housing in Brazil. Sustainability. 13(9):1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094757S11513

Reviewing the effects of deploying Building Information Modelling (BIM) on the adoption of sustainable design in Gulf countries: a case study in Saudi Arabia

Sustainable construction is a challenging prospect in Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is often suggested as a solution. However, achieving improvement is associated with considerable challenges, particularly regarding energy efficiency improvements. Furthermore, the extreme environmental conditions in Saudi Arabia increase the demand for energy. As energy consumption in buildings is one of the main problems related to the built environment in both dry and hot climates, although in hot climates especially the issue is exacerbated by the particularly great need for cooling systems in buildings. On the other hand, one of the most important factors that affect Saudi Arabia’s building design is gender and function, demonstrating how the culture of Saudi Arabia, significantly influenced by the Islamic religion, affects design. This paper aims to present a literature review of the area of sustainable building design and the impact of cultural issues, focusing on the case of Saudi Arabia. This paper has analysed related literature in the area of sustainable building design and the influence of cultural issues, focusing on the case of Saudi Arabia. This review has identified the lack of using technology to support designs in Saudi Arabia, lack of achieving sustainability in Saudi Arabia, culture issues effect on designing in Saudi Arabia, and lack of using Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Saudi Arabia for both public and private project. These issues have led to a series of recommendations that have the potential to improve the adoption of sustainable design in Saudi Arabia by using (BIM). Some of these recommendations are developing and understanding the influence of cultural issues on achieving sustainable design. Secondly, analysing the different viewpoints on sustainability between the experts and members of the public. Furthermore, developing a framework of measures of sustainable design for buildings with consideration of specific factors. Additionally, showing the current level of using BIM technologies. Finally, developing a methodology, supported by BIM, for both government and private projects

Facilitating BIM-based sustainability analysis and communication in building design process

Population growth and resource scarcity has created unprecedented demand of sustainable buildings around the world. During design and construction processes, meeting this demand is considered an extremely challenging task, at least due to following several reasons. Firstly, the long-term sustainability of a building is difficult to define, let alone assess. Although there are standard assessment methods (e.g. BREEAM, LEED) and specific client requirements, each participant of the process may have different views and approaches to sustainability owing to their disciplinary practices and experiences. Secondly, although the most critical time to make decisions on a building’s sustainable features is during the early stages of design, building performance analysis (for relatively easy to agree and accurately predict performance criteria, such as energy efficiency) is usually performed after the design and construction documents are produced. This practice results in lost opportunities to maximise the sustainability of building design and technology options. Thirdly, it is widely documented that the sustainability progress in the AEC/FM industry has been hampered by fragmentation, low innovation, adversarial relationships and slow adoption of Information Communication Technologies. The emergence of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has promised an accelerated progress of sustainable building development. BIM promotes integration among building professionals and improves design goals by allowing multi-disciplinary information to be integrated within a single model. This creates an opportunity to conduct the analysis throughout the design process, concurrently with the production of the design documents. Despite these expected benefits, the practice of using BIM for sustainability has not been widely embedded within the AEC/FM industry. In order to achieve a step change in current processes for optimal results, there is a need to define requirements of the process, tools, systems and stakeholders responsibilities of conducting sustainability assessment during the design stages of a building. To align with the industry practice, this should be based on the recently developed BIM Overlay to the RIBA Outline Plan of Work which offers a response to the UK Government’s commitment to have all projects utilising BIM from 2016. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review along with a conceptual model based on the RIBA Plan of Work 2013. The model describes the main stages of the sustainability design process and the key inputs and outputs of each stage