Building Performance

The building construction firms have been improved the quality of its activities due to the high market competition and the consumer's demands. In this situation, the design of the different parts of the building, including the product and the production process definitions, is fundamental to improve the costs and the building performance. The external rendering is one of the parts

Many existing building performance analysis methods and tools do not effectively encourage and facilitate iterative, multi-criteria, and multi-agenda building design development. SEMPER, which was originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), is a building design and performance simulation environment that attempts to remedy these shortcomings. It is an active, multi-domain, space-based, object-oriented design support tool for integrated building performance computing.

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Identification and development of innovative techniques are the focal points of research to reduce energy consumption in the operation of residential structures. Buildings account for over one-third of total energy consumption globally, while innovative technologies can save 22% of this consumption. The services of the operational phase of a building are complicated and tedious, requiring a lot of time and effort for evaluation and subsequent repair. These services include an HVAC system, water supply, drainage, power distribution, network, and elevator, which facility managers and service professionals maintain and repairs. The tasks involved are challenging as several barriers hinder the performance, varying from the communication gap and management of people residing in the building to technical issues that consume time and effort. An increase in operational performance is the need of the hour to survive in a challenging environment by predicting,
diagnosing, and solving problems before even they occur. For instance, equipment degradation cannot handle a mass inflow of people in a building. Digital twin (DT) technology can address such problems. It is a simulation-based concept that creates a virtual counterpart of a physical system. DT simulates data by synchronising information in real-time and creates a high-fidelity virtual model of the equipment in question. This research is consistent with DT definition as a virtual representation of a
system that uses real-time data for analysis. In Facility Management (FM), the DT can collect data and create a replica of any design and other monitoring, prediction, analysing, resolving, control services, and help in decision making. Chiller is one of the essential assets that consume a tremendous amount of energy. The study shall address the impact of the DT technology on the Chiller performance and its behaviour. That impacts the entire asset lifecycle. However, good data mining is vital for the early identification of possible equipment breakdowns and continuous improvement schedule development. There are various existing obstacles to achieving fast and reliable abnormality detection in an automated system. The difficulties can be transferring vast volumes of data acquired from the machine and utilising historical and real-time data for outlier detection. This research performed a survey of experts and discussed a case study that offers a DT detection framework for abnormal behaviour of the chiller.

The documentation of heritage buildings is the preliminary action to deal with any problem related to the built heritage. The procedure of documentation requires a very diverse range of data (quantitative and qualitative) to be obtained and investigated in order to produce an accurate digital representation of the building. This type of work of data capture and interpretation is often conducted in isolation by different stakeholders and for a range of purposes, leading to a lack of communication between different data types, repeated effort and incomplete documentation. Heritage Building Information Modelling (H-BIM) is set to play a key role in the digital documentation of heritage buildings, as it can combine quantitative and qualitative data and facilitate the integration of different stakeholders and specialised data into the digital management of the different phases of dealing with heritage buildings. This paper aims to review the multitude of data types that could be included in the documentation and investigation process of the built heritage, in order to assess the breadth and depth by which heritage buildings can be documented. Four main categories that span the whole documentation data areas are being suggested which vary from outer geometry surveys, to subsurface materials and structural integrity investigations, to data concerning the building performance, as well as the historic records concerning the building's morphology over time, which can help to create a more in-depth knowledge about the heritage building's status and performance and can create a solid base for any required restoration and retrofitting processes (Khalil and Stravoravdis 2019a).

Buildings with indoor swimming pools are recognised as very high-energy consumers and present a grate potential for saving energy. The management of indoor ambient conditions must act upon the most sensible parameters that affect the energy consumption; the energy is spending in several ways: Evaporation heat loss from the pool; ambient temperatures very high; and High rates of ventilation required. Control Strategies adapted to the reality of each building is an important way to reduce energy consumption. These paper presents control strategies that can implemented in the building automation system and the HVAC system of an existing indoor swimming pool complex, in order to minimise energy consumption. Taking into account the complexity of the parameters involved in a feasibility study of measures to reduce the energy consumption of the building, the choice of energy simulation programs is actually the better way, either from both economical and time perspectives, to quantify the b...

ABSTRACT
This research work was carried out to investigate the factors affecting the performance of time, cost and quality as well as the effect of poor performances on construction projects in Uyo and Okobo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. To achieve the set objectives of this study, both primary and secondary sources of data collection were employed. The principal form used was a well structured questionnaire which was analysed using index, frequencies and percentages. Analysis of the study reveals that inadequate budget and financial problems, increase in the cost of materials and procurement of low quality materials are the three major factors that affects the performance of time, cost and quality respectively, while abandoning of projects was indicated as the main effect that poor performance has on construction projects. Conflicts and disputes among parties to the contract, professional reputation of the construction team adversely affected and escalation of project cost were also found to be the effect of poor performances on projects. The study concluded by recommending the availability of adequate funds, provision for fluctuations, procurement of specified materials, effective planning and supervision, elimination of politics in construction projects, setting performance targets and adequate communication between clients, consultants and contractors as these will increase the overall performance of construction projects.

The Brazilian construction industry is often affected by the lack of formalization for the design, construction, operation and maintenance processes. However, the efficient information management can improve the sharing of lessons learned from previous results regarding building performance. This is important, because it is expected that this information is used for reviewing new construction requirements. In the case of similar buildings, this approach allows improving the built environment performance, by continuously reviewing the design guidelines. Considering these aspects, Post-Occupancy Evaluations (POEs) were applied to São Paulo public educational facilities, in the period between 2008 and 2011. From these results analysis, the design guidelines and maintenance procedures review was considered relevant. Once these buildings are standardized and share functional programming and specifications for building systems and components, it was considered appropriate to formalize a process for the information management. Therefore, the information related to a building can be managed in a structured manner, accessible for the players engaged in the building design and facility management. This research shows an approach regarding the knowledge management and discusses the technological resources required for the performance of buildings assessed under the management of one organization, in order to be efficiently documented. These procedures also aim to promote the built environment quality in the built environment, by enabling comparisons between similar buildings, in order to improve their usability and maintainability levels, throughout the expected service life of the building components and construction systems.

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With the rising cost of energy and growing environmental concerns, the demand for sustainable building facilities with minimal environmental impact is increasing. The most effective decisions regarding sustainability in a building facility are made in the early design and ...

Agricultural practices are at a significant cross roads: continuous population growth, increasing evidence of food shortage and reduced land availability are just a few of the problems highlighting the need to improve existing agricultural methods. Moreover, recurrent emerging episodes of catastrophic natural phenomena occurring across the world, such as global warming, increased natural disasters and depletion of natural resources are pushing the bar even higher, in terms of the urgent need to find viable solutions to tackle food security. The research community is under pressure to find solutions towards the above issues in tandem with the protection of the natural environment and the need to improve quality of life. In parallel, the architectural challenges are outlined by the same realities, because cities will continue to grow and it is imperative to find solutions to minimise the impact of urban development on the planet. Two key areas have been identified in this research, they are considered to have the potential to simultaneously help to mitigate the problems mentioned above: 1) Improved design of buildings and cities to encourage urban biodiversity, i.e. better urban design and architectural practices. 2) Enhanced methods to produce, store and distribute food, i.e. improved rural and urban agriculture: produce, storage and distribution. Scrutiny into these topics lead this investigation into vertical farming and the exploration on how it can be improved. A simulation methodology is under development, aiming to reproduce the potential capabilities of vertical farms, exploring their wider viability and their integration into existing and new buildings. This paper follows the development of this methodology, its current capabilities and the future directions of this ongoing investigation.

Many assumptions must be made about thermal zoning and interzonal airflow for modelling the performance of buildings. This is particularly important for solar homes, which are subjected to high levels of periodic solar heat gains in certain zones. The way in which these passive solar heat gains are distributed to other zones of a building has a significant effect on predicted energy performance, thermal comfort and optimal design selection. This article presents a comprehensive sensitivity analysis that quantifies the effect of thermal zoning and interzonal airflow on building performance, optimal south-facing glazing area, and thermal comfort. The effect of controlled shades to control unwanted solar gains is also explored. Results show that passive solar buildings, in particular, can benefit from increased air circulation with a forced air system because it allows solar gains to be redistributed and thus reduces direct gain zone overheating and total energy consumption.