Exploring the high-pressure materials genome

A thorough in situ characterization of materials at extreme conditions is challenging, and computational tools such as crystal structural search methods in combination with ab initio calculations are widely used to guide experiments by predicting the composition, structure, and properties of high-pressure compounds. However, such techniques are usually computationally expensive and not suitable for large-scale combinatorial exploration. On the other hand, data-driven computational approaches using large materials databases are useful for the analysis of energetics and stability of hundreds of thousands of compounds, but their utility for materials discovery is largely limited to idealized conditions of zero temperature and pressure. Here, we present a novel framework combining the two computational approaches, using a simple linear approximation to the enthalpy of a compound in conjunction with ambient-conditions data currently available in high-throughput databases of calculated materials properties. We demonstrate its utility by explaining the occurrence of phases in nature that are not ground states at ambient conditions and estimating the pressures at which such ambient-metastable phases become thermodynamically accessible, as well as guiding the exploration of ambient-immiscible binary systems via sophisticated structural search methods to discover new stable high-pressure phases.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

(Re)constructing the wicked problem through the visual and the verbal: the case of a dialogue based architectural competition

Wicked problems are open ended and complex societal problems. There is a lack of empirical research into the dynamics and mechanisms that (re)construct problems to become wicked. This paper builds on an ethnographic study of a dialogue-based architect competition to do just that. The competition studied had the purpose of selecting a design, a project and a design team for a large multifunctional building in Copenhagen. As a part of the competition, four different architect-teams had to come up with solutions on how to transform an old brewery site into a multifunctional building. During the competition, the invited architectural teams presented their designs and team organization in three parallel workshops for a panel of client advisors, user representatives as well as a professional jury. Our data consists of semi structured interviews with key informants before, during and after the competition and participant observations from all the workshops. We focus on the dynamic interplay between design visualizations and verbal dialogues and the ways in which contradictions and tensions emerge and play out. When the architect teams present their solutions at the workshops, the visualization processes creates new knowledge and insights, but at the same time present new problems related to the ongoing verbal feedback. In the design process where the problem is being (re) constructed appears as Heracles fight with Hydra: Every time Heracles cut of a head, two new heads grow out. The paper contributes to the understanding of the relationship between the visual and the verbal (dialogue) in complex design process in the early phases of large construction projects, and how the dynamic interplay between the design visualizations and verbal dialogues develops before the competition produces, or negotiates “a winning design”

Comparison of two stabilizingsystems of steel structure including the effect of earthquake design

Master's thesis in Civil and structural engineering (BYG508

Stakeholder engagement and knowledge co-creation in water planning:can public participation increase cost-effectiveness?

In 2014, a radical shift took place in Danish water planning. Following years of a top-down water planning approach, 23 regional water councils were established to co-create and provide input to Danish authorities on the development of River Basin Management Plans (RBMP). The water councils advised local authorities on the application of measures to improve the physical conditions in Danish streams within a given economic frame. The paper shows the difference the use of water councils (public participation) made by comparing the final water council proposal included in the 2015 RBMP to the RBMPs proposed by the central government (Nature Agency) in 2014. The study concludes that the measures proposed by the water councils will generally deliver better results than the proposed Nature Agency plans, which do not include the same level of participation. Specifically, the water councils with stakeholder involvement proposed a much longer network of streams (3800 km), yielding a better ecological outcome than the shorter stream network (1615 km) proposed by the Nature Agency for the same budget. Having a structured and fixed institutional frame around public participation (top-down meeting bottom-up) can produce cost-effective results, but the results show that cost-effectiveness was not the only deciding factor, and that local circumstances like the practicalities of implementing the measures were also considered when developing the Programmes of Measures. The findings suggest that the use of water councils in water planning has significant advantages, including the fact that the knowledge of local conditions helps to identify efficient solutions at lower costs, which can be useful for administrators, policy-makers, and other stakeholders implementing the Water Framework Directive in years to come