Developing a Thermal Comfort Report Card for Building

AbstractBuildings consume 40% of total energy in the United States and approximately 48% of which is consumed by Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC). This highlights the importance of developing robust and dynamic Building Monitoring Systems (BMS) that are capable of providing the optimal operation of HVAC systems in terms of maximizing thermal comfort of building occupants while minimizing energy consumptions. Numerous empirical studies have demonstrated that occupant behavior is a key factor underlying energy consumption in existing buildings. However, few if any reliable data sets exist documenting precise human activities and their associated occupant comfort levels within buildings. Furthermore, little if anything is known about how this information directly relates to building energy performance. This research documents on-going development of software prototype tools for modeling thermal comfort in buildings based on real-time occupant and building systems data. The outcomes help building owners to identify areas that require improvements with regard to thermal comfort with broader impacts that improve occupant productivity, comfort, and well-being. The primary technical contribution is to model human comfort on the building level based on actual occupant usage, in order to identify and target energy efficiency measures that optimize energy usage according to comfort rather than maximum energy savings alone. Future research will synthesize building occupant and sensor data to support regression analysis that may identify the correlation of the reported thermal comfort, activities of building occupants, and building conditions. Such data may also be used to develop algorithms for controlling interior lighting, exhaust fans, ventilation, and HVAC temperature set points that optimize comfort while minimizing energy demands

Adapting Construction Staking to Modern Technology

This report summarizes the tasks and findings of the ICT Project R27-163, Adapting Construction Staking to Modern Technology, which aims to develop written procedures for the use of modern technologies (such as GPS and civil information modeling) in construction staking of highway projects, for inclusion in the Illinois Department of Transportation’s (IDOT’s) Construction Manual. Six primary research tasks were completed: (1) conducting a comprehensive literature review on the use of modern technologies in construction staking by state departments of transportation (DOTs) and contractors; (2) conducting a survey to gather information from state DOTs and contractors on current practices employed by other states; (3) identifying a set of potential practices for employment in Illinois; (4) conducting a survey to gather feedback from IDOT staff and Illinois contractors; (5) developing draft summarized written procedures for review by the Technical Review Panel (TRP); and (6) developing complete written procedures for the use of modern technologies in construction staking of highway projects, for inclusion in IDOT’s Construction Manual. The written procedures are intended to support construction-staking processes when a contractor employs such technologies. The procedures are expected to enable the employment of these technologies in Illinois and, in turn, to offer major opportunities for quality improvements, cost savings, and expediting project delivery.IDOT-R27-163Ope

Best Management Practices and Incentives to Expedite Utility Relocation

The relocation of utilities often causes delays to the completion of highway projects in Illinois and other states. These delays often result in delayed project completion and reopening of closed roads, and increased design and construction costs. This report presents the findings of a research project funded by the Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) to investigate, identify, and recommend best management practices (BMPs) and incentives that can be used by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to expedite utility relocation and minimize its related work delays. The objectives of this project were to (1) conduct a comprehensive literature review to gather and analyze the most current resource material on BMPs and incentives, (2) analyze the conformance of utility-relocation practices in selected IDOT district offices with related IDOT policies and laws, (3) conduct surveys of other state DOT officials and Illinois utility company representatives to collect and analyze their experiences in utilizing BMPs to expedite utility relocation, (4) evaluate the compliance of the identified BMPs and incentives with federal and Illinois state laws, regulations, and guidelines governing utility relocation, (5) quantify the costs and benefits of all the identified compliant utility-relocation BMPs, and (6) develop a dynamic decision-support tool that enables IDOT to rank the compliant utility-relocation BMPs and incentives based on their district-specific criteria.IDOT-R27-153Ope

Economical Impact of Full Closure for Accelerated Bridge Construction and Conventional Staged Construction

R27-242Accelerated bridge construction (ABC) methods have been increasingly used in recent years to reduce the impact of construction operations on traffic and mobility. ABC methods, however, often require a higher initial cost, more planning, and additional design coordination. Several tools have been developed to assist decision-makers in the selection of conventional staged construction or ABC methods based on bridge characteristics and requirements. Most of these existing tools, however, are qualitative and depend on the subjective opinion of decision-makers/experts. Accordingly, there is a need for additional research to develop quantitative tools for generating reliable cost estimates for conventional and accelerated bridge construction methods. This report presents the findings of a research project funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to develop a decision support tool (DST) that IDOT can use to estimate and compare the cost of all bridge construction methods, including conventional staged construction and ABC methods. This project has four objectives. The first objective is to develop a qualitative DST that can be used by IDOT planners and decision-makers to identify all feasible bridge construction methods for any bridge project based on its specific characteristics, requirements, and constraints. The second objective is to create a quantitative cost-estimating DST that can be used to accurately estimate construction, road user, maintenance and rehabilitation, and life cycle costs for all feasible construction methods including conventional and ABC methods. The third objective is to develop guidance for the user interface of the developed DST to explain how it can be used to compare and rank all feasible bridge construction methods based on their individual performance in design, construction, road user, and maintenance and rehabilitation costs. The fourth objective is to evaluate the performance and accuracy of the developed quantitative DST for estimating bridge costs

Assessment of collaborative decision-making in design development and coordination meetings

Building design is a complex multi-disciplinary process that requires extensive collaboration to develop a coordinated design that satisfies the functional, aesthetic, and economic requirements of the owner. Today, design meetings typically take place in physical workspaces, such as conference rooms, where all the relevant members of the team work together in the same place and time. Although most project information is generated electronically, teams primarily communicate and share information using paper-based representations. Emerging technologies such as touch-sensitive large-screen displays, table-top displays, laptops, and tablet PCs offer great promise in enriching today’s paper-based workspaces to create what are known as interactive workspaces. 3D design tools are also gaining acceptance and providing significant benefits to the design coordination process. However, it remains unclear as to how such tools and technologies can be incorporated effectively in workspaces to support design coordination meetings. This research addresses this need by characterizing how people spend time performing collaborative decision-making tasks in design development meetings. I conducted a five-month field study of the design development process for the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) project being constructed near downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. I observed weekly design development meetings and performed a thorough post-meeting video analysis. During the meetings, I took detailed notes documenting the meeting activities, the kind of information sources and representations used, and the interactions meeting participants had with information. The video was analyzed to identify how time is spent on different decision-making tasks and to determine the effectiveness of those tasks. This research found that the majority of time in design development meetings is spent on descriptive (35%) and explanative (42%)a sks and very little time is spent on evaluative (12%)n d predictive (11%) tasks. However, resolution rates- percentage of tasks resolved- were still quite high in these meetings. with an average of 73%. Based on the analysis, paper-based meetings were compared and an initial set of requirements for accomplishing design development tasks in a computer-supported interactive workspace were identified. In summary, successful interactive workspaces should support physical as well as digital artefacts, digital records of meetings, and digital overlays of schematic diagrams.Applied Science, Faculty ofCivil Engineering, Department ofGraduat