Building the future: integrating building information management and environmental assessment methodologies

The demand for sustainable buildings is increasing driven in part by legislation, rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns amongst consumers. As a result clients and developers are increasingly seeking to incorporate environmental attributes into buildings and demonstrate these sustainability credentials by certifying a development using an environmental assessment methodology such as BREEAM or LEED. One of the major issues in delivering sustainable buildings is ensuring that measures incorporated into a building at design stage are translated into action during building construction. This disconnect between design and construction phases of a project often results in the need to undertake costly remedial measures to achieve a targeted sustainability rating, or the building failing the assessment. This paper suggests that by integrating BIM with Environmental Assessment Methodologies decisions made with regard to sustainability attributes at the design stage can be clearly communicated and understood by all involved in the buildings specification and construction. It introduces a conceptual framework that seeks to define the relationship between BIM and EAMs

Sustainable Jobs in Sustainable Energy : closing the gap

The surge in demand for renewable energy has seen the sector expand in recent years. Evidence of this in the North East is the recent establishment of an R&D centre (New and Renewable Energy Centre NaREC). However, the North East, even with its strong engineering background, has not had a successful rate of growth due particularly to skill deficiencies (CURDS 2002; GO 2004). This project investigated higher-level skill needs in the sector and gives recommendations on integrating the findings into the University curricula. In particular it recommends change in the area of mechanical and electrical engineering, which covers a wide range of renewable energy employment needs through its HND, degree and Masters programmes

CAST – City analysis simulation tool: an integrated model of land use, population, transport and economics

The paper reports on research into city modelling based on principles of Science of Complexity. It focuses on integration of major processes in cities, such as economics, land use, transport and population movement. This is achieved using an extended Cellular Automata model, which allows cells to form networks, and operate on individual financial budgets. There are 22 cell types with individual processes in them. The formation of networks is based on supply and demand mechanisms for products, skills, accommodation, and services. Demand for transport is obtained as an emergent property of the system resulting from the network connectivity and relevant economic mechanisms. Population movement is a consequence of mechanisms in the housing and skill markets. Income and expenditure of cells are self-regulated through market mechanisms and changing patterns of land use are a consequence of collective interaction of all mechanisms in the model, which are integrated through emergence

Digital Energy Estimation Tool (DEET): Final Report

Buildings have an impact on the environment at all stages of their life cycle; material production, construction, operation & repair and demolition stage. The impact in terms of energy and carbon is well documented at present with approximately 40-50% of global energy consumption for operational energy requirements and 30% of global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions. While operational energy efficiency has traditionally received considerable attention from the government, building related professional bodies and research community, the embodied energy portion of Built Environment assets tended to be neglected . Therefore, recent attention has been shifted towards increasing the knowledge of whole lifecycle energy efficiency. Methods to estimate whole life cycle energy consumption are well recognised, but they are time consuming and comprehensive analytical procedures. Numerous studies have looked into developing tools to make the estimation process simple. However, none of them have resulted in estimating whole life cycle energy or making it easy for stakeholders or professional to engage with . In this research project with the financial assistance from CDBB the research team has developed a unique parametric design based methodology for estimating total energy use in a building utilising BIM (Buidling Information Modelling) frameworks and protocols. Results from the work have indicated that embodied energy can be much more significant in the first few phases of the buildings life cycle, and material selection can be addressed within a parametric model .In addition the funding allowed for a unique multidisciplinary research approach for technologies such as BIM and virtual reality can be used to communicate the message of addressing the overall aims of CDBB in enhancing the performance of the built environment and the cities and communities it serves

Towards green building performance evaluation using Asset Information Modelling

Purpose - This paper provides a unique conceptual framework for integrated asset management strategy that includes making use of available facility assessment methods and tools such as BREEAM In-Use, and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED); and highlights proposes areas of commonality between these and the use of as-built Building Information Modelling, that ultimately becomes the Asset Information Model (AIM). This framework will consider the emerging requirements for the capture of Building Performance Attribute Data (BPAD), and how these can be managed in order to assist with effective post-construction building performance evaluation. Design/methodology/approach - A review of the current process relevant to the development of as-built BIMs and AIMs was undertaken which included a discussion of BIM standards and of the COBie process. This was combined with data provided by industry practitioners. This led to the concept of BPADs being developed, to be used within existing green building tool, BREEAM In-Use, COBIE and FM /Asset management methods. In turn these methodologies were used to identify possible synergies and areas of integration in AIM-enabled environments. Findings - Recognising the cyclical nature of asset management and BIM, a conceptual model was generated. It was found that BPADs could be aggregated within an AIM model which could influence the delivery of effective facilities and asset management. The model considers the use of existing Building Management Systems (BMS) and Computer Aided Facility Management Systems (CAFMs) and identifies issues associated with the overall sustainability strategy. Originality/value - A conceptual framework is generated that proposes the use of effective information management and aggregation of building performance attribute data within an Asset Information Model

Embodied carbon as a material selection criterion: Insights from Sri Lankan construction sector

The choice of materials is crucial in responding to the increasing embodied carbon (EC) impacts of buildings. Building professionals involved in material selection for construction projects have a vital role to play in this regard. This paper aimed to explore the extent to which building professionals in Sri Lanka considered EC as a material selection criterion. A questionnaire survey was conducted among a sample of building professionals in Sri Lanka. The results indicated that the consideration of EC as a material selection criterion remained low among key professionals, such as architects, engineers, and sustainability managers, despite their reasonable influencing powers and knowledge of EC. Those respondents who had considered EC as a selection criterion said they had been primarily driven by green building rating systems and previous experience. Those respondents who had not considered EC during material selection commonly reported that they had been prevented from doing so by the lack of regulations and the lack of alternative low carbon materials. Respondents believed that the involvement of actors, such as the government, professional bodies, environmental organizations, activist groups, and the public, may be significant in promoting the greater consideration of EC during material selection

Dynamic Modeling of Three Links Robot Manipulator (Open Chain) with Spherical Wrist

Dynamic modeling of a robot manipulator is a central problem in an accurate robot control. In this paper; the dynamic equations of motion were derived by using Eular-Lagrange method for a six degree of freedom articulated robot manipulator based on the geometrical jacobian construction for each link and actuator. In addition, friction effects beside the end effector forces that act the environment are considered. A Matlab Simulink plant is developed to embrace the theoretical work and simulate the dynamic response for a designed nonlinear controller Proportional Derivative plus Gravity (PD+G), also a modified controller is applied to reject the disturbances and the internal friction effect where the settling errors were 3.57E-6, 2.09E-7, -3.63E-6, 8.84E-6, -5.39E-8 and -4.39E-5 (deg) for joints one to six respectively. The presented approach can be applicable to solve the dynamic problem of other n-link robot manipulators and achieve a suitable solution for tracking trajectories

Quantum computers for optimization the performance

Computers decrease human work and concentrate on enhancing the performance to advance the technology. Various methods have been developed to enhance the performance of computers. Performance of computer is based on computer architecture, while computer architecture differs in various devices, such as microcomputers, minicomputers, mainframes, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. While each device has its own architecture, the majority of these systems are built on Boolean algebra. In this study, a few basic concepts used in quantum computing are discussed. It is known that quantum computers do not possess any transistor and chip while being roughly 100 times faster than a common classic silicon computer. Scientists believe that quantum computers are the next generation of the classic computers

Algorithm for enhancing the QoS of video traffic over wireless mesh networks

One of the major issues in a wireless mesh networks (WMNs) which needs to be solved is the lack of a viable protocol for medium access control (MAC). In fact, the main concern is to expand the application of limited wireless resources while simultaneously retaining the quality of service (QoS) of all types of traffic. In particular, the video service for real-time variable bit rate (rt-VBR). As such, this study attempts to enhance QoS with regard to packet loss, average delay, and throughput by controlling the transmitted video packets. The packet loss and average delay of QoS for video traffic can be controlled. Results of simulation show that Optimum Dynamic Reservation-Time Division Multiplexing Access (ODR-TDMA) has achieved excellent utilization of resource that improvised the QoS meant for video packets. This study has also proven the adequacy of the proposed algorithm to minimize packet delay and packet loss, in addition to enhancing throughput in comparison to those reported in previous studies