Therapeutic metaphors in engineering: how to cure a building structure

Cognitive linguistics have conscientiously pointed out the pervasiveness of conceptual mappings, particularly as conceptual blending and integration, that underlie language and that are unconsciously used in everyday speech (Fauconnier 1997, Fauconnier & Turner 2002; Rohrer 2007; Grady, Oakley & Coulson 1999). Moreover, as a further development of this work, there is a growing interest in research devoted to the conceptual mappings that make up specialized technical disciplines. Lakoff & Núñez 2000, for example, have produced a major breakthrough on the understanding of concepts in mathematics, through conceptual metaphor and as a result not of purely abstract concepts but rather of embodiment. On the engineering and architecture front, analyses on the use of metaphor, blending and categorization in English and Spanish have likewise appeared in recent times (Úbeda 2001, Roldán 1999, Caballero 2003a, 2003b, Roldán & Ubeda 2006, Roldán & Protasenia 2007). The present paper seeks to show a number of significant conceptual mappings underlying the language of architecture and civil engineering that seem to shape the way engineers and architects communicate. In order to work with a significant segment of linguistic expressions in this field, a corpus taken from a widely used technical Spanish engineering journal article was collected and analysed. The examination of the data obtained indicates that many tokens make a direct reference to therapeutic conceptual mappings, highlighting medical domains such as diagnosing,treating and curing. Hence, the paper illustrates how this notion is instantiated by the corresponding bodily conceptual integration. In addition, we wish to underline the function of visual metaphors in the world of modern architecture by evoking parts of human or animal anatomy, and how this is visibly noticeable in contemporary buildings and public works structures.

Optimal model through identified frequencies of a masonry building structure with wooden floors

The paper presents the analysis of an important historical building: the Saint James Theater in the city of Corfù (Greece) actually used as the Municipality House. The building, located in the center of the city, is made of carves stones and is characterized by a stocky shape and by the presence of wooden floors. The study deals with the structural identification of such structure through the analysis of its ambient vibrations recorded by means of accelerometers with high accuracy. A full dynamic testing was developed using ambient vibrations to identify the main modal parameters and to make a non-destructive characterization of this building. The results of these dynamic tests are compared with the modal analysis of a complex finite element (FE) simulation of the structure. This analysis may present several problems and uncertainties for this stocky building. Due to the presence of wooden floors, the local modes can be highly excited and, as a consequence, the evaluation of the structural modal parameters presents some difficulties.

Assessing initial embodied energy in building structures using LCA methodology

The considerable amount of energy consumed on Earth is a major cause for not achieving sustainable development. Buildings are responsible for the highest worldwide energy consumption, nearly 40%. Strong efforts have been made in what concerns the reduction of buildings operational energy (heating, hot water, ventilation, electricity), since operational energy is so far the highest energy component in a building life cycle. However, as operational energy is being reduced the embodied energy increases. One of the building elements responsible for higher embodied energy consumption is the building structural system. Therefore, the present work is going to study part of embodied energy (initial embodied energy) in building structures using a life cycle assessment methodology, in order to contribute for a greater understanding of embodied energy in buildings structural systems. Initial embodied energy is estimated for a building structure by varying the span and the structural material type. The results are analysed and compared for different stages, and some conclusions are drawn. At the end of this work it was possible to conclude that the building span does not have considerable influence in embodied energy consumption of building structures. However, the structural material type has influence in the overall energetic performance. In fact, with this research it was possible that building structure that requires more initial embodied energy is the steel structure; then the glued laminated timber structure; and finally the concrete structure.

Thermal energy storage with phase change materials in building envelopes

Els materials de canvi de fase (PCM) han estat considerats per a l’emmagatzematge tèrmic en edificis des de 1980. Amb la inclusió dels PCM en plaques de guix, guix, formigó o altres materials que s’utilitzen per a cobrir les parets, l’emmagatzematge tèrmic pot ser part de les estructures fins i tot en edificis lleugers. Les noves tècniques de microencapsulació han obert moltes possibilitats en aplicacions per a edificis. El treball que es presenta és el desenvolupament d’un formigó innovador mesclat amb PCM microencapsulat, amb un punt de fusió de 26 oC i una entalpia de canvi de fase de 110 kJ/kg. El primer experiment va ser la inclusió del PCM microencapsulat dins del formigó i la construcció d’una caseta amb aquest nou formigó-PCM. Es va construir una segona caseta al costat de la primera amb les mateixes característiques i orientació però amb formigó convencional que serveix com a referència. Durant els anys 2005 i 2006 es va analitzar el comportament d’ambdues casetes i més tard es va edificar un mur Trombe a la paret sud de totes dues per investigar la seva influència durant la tardor i l’hivern.

Towards sustainable peace : peace-building and human security

Failed and fragile states that result from intrastate war pose severe threats to the security of both the international system and individual states alike. In the post-Cold War era, the international community has come to recognize the reality of these threats and the difficulty involved in ending violence and building sustainable peace in failed and fragile states. This work focuses upon the development of a comprehensive strategy for sustainable peace-building by incorporating the tenets of the human security doctrine into the peace-building process. Through the use of case studies of The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and East Timor, the development and refinement of the doctrine of human security will occur, as well as, an understanding of how and where human security fits into the sustainable peace-building equation. The end result of the analysis is the development of a hierarchical pyramid formation that brings together human security and peace-building into one framework that ultimately creates the foundation and structure of sustainable peace-building. With the development of a sustainable peace-building structure based upon the human security doctrine, the role of Canada in the support of sustainable peace-building is analyzed in relation to the form and level of involvement that Canada undertakes and contributes to in the implementation and support of sustainable peace-building initiatives. Following from this, recommendations are provided regarding what role(s) Canada should undertake in the sustainable peace-building process that take into consideration the present and likely future capabilities of Canada to be involved in various aspects of the peace-building process. ii This paper outlines the need for a peace-building strategy that is designed to be sustainable in order that failed and fragile states resulting from intrastate conflict do not regress or collapse back into a condition of civil war, and subsequently designs such a strategy. The linking of peace-building and human security creates the required framework from which sustainable peace-building is derived. Creating sustainable peace is necessary in order to increase the likelihood that both present and future generations existing in failed and fragile states will be spared from the scourge of intrastate war.

Modeling building semantics: providing feedback and sustainability

Even minor changes in user activity can bring about significant energy savings within built space. Many building performance assessment methods have been developed, however these often disregard the impact of user behavior (i.e. the social, cultural and organizational aspects of the building). Building users currently have limited means of determining how sustainable they are, in context of the specific building structure and/or when compared to other users performing similar activities, it is therefore easy for users to dismiss their energy use. To support sustainability, buildings must be able to monitor energy use, identify areas of potential change in the context of user activity and provide contextually relevant information to facilitate persuasion management. If the building is able to provide users with detailed information about how specific user activity that is wasteful, this should provide considerable motivation to implement positive change. This paper proposes using a dynamic and temporal semantic model, to populate information within a model of persuasion, to manage user change. By semantically mapping a building, and linking this to persuasion management we suggest that: i) building energy use can be monitored and analyzed over time; ii) persuasive management can be facilitated to move user activity towards sustainability.

A structure excited by a DC motor of limited power supply and controlled by a pendulum like device

In this paper, a mathematical model is derived via Lagrange's Equation for a shear building structure that acts as a foundation of a non-ideal direct current electric motor, controlled by a mass loose inside a circular carving. Non-ideal sources of vibrations of structures are those whose characteristics are coupled to the motion of the structure, not being a function of time only as in the ideal case. Thus, in this case, an additional equation of motion is written, related to the motor rotation, coupled to the equation describing the horizontal motion of the shear building. This kind of problem can lead to the so-called Sommerfeld effect: steady state frequencies of the motor will usually increase as more power (voltage) is given to it in a step-by-step fashion. When a resonance condition with the structure is reached, the better part of this energy is consumed to generate large amplitude vibrations of the foundation without sensible change of the motor frequency as before. If additional increase steps in voltage are made, one may reach a situation where the rotor will jump to higher rotation regimes, no steady states being stable in between. As a device of passive control of both large amplitude vibrations and the Sommerfeld effect, a scheme is proposed using a point mass free to bounce back and forth inside a circular carving in the suspended mass of the structure. Numerical simulations of the model are also presented Copyright © 2007 by ASME.

Output only based modal analysis of a reduced scale building using digital camera images

The article discusses a proposal of displacement measurement using a unique digital camera aiming at to exploit its feasibility for Modal Analysis applications. The proposal discusses a non-contact measuring approach able to measure multiple points simultaneously by using a unique digital camera. A modal analysis of a reduced scale lab building structure based only at the responses of the structure measured with the camera is presented. It focuses at the feasibility of using a simple ordinary camera for performing the output only modal analysis of structures and its advantage. The modal parameters of the structure are estimated from the camera data and also by using ordinary experimental modal analysis based on the Frequency Response Function (FRF) obtained by using the usual sensors like accelerometer and force cell. The comparison of the both analysis showed that the technique is promising noncontact measuring tool relatively simple and effective to be used in structural modal analysis

Learning from experience: Analysis of the civil litigation regarding building structures on the court of bologna in the years 2011/2012

The present work is aimed to the study and the analysis of the defects detected in the civil structure and that are object of civil litigation in order to create an instruments capable of helping the different actor involved in the building process. It is divided in three main sections. The first part is focused on the collection of the data related to the civil proceeding of the 2012 and the development of in depth analysis of the main aspects regarding the defects on existing buildings. The research center “Osservatorio Claudio Ceccoli” developed a system for the collection of the information coming from the civil proceedings of the Court of Bologna. Statistical analysis are been performed and the results are been shown and discussed in the first chapters.The second part analyzes the main issues emerged during the study of the real cases, related to the activities of the technical consultant. The idea is to create documents, called “focus”, addressed to clarify and codify specific problems in order to develop guidelines that help the technician editing of the technical advice.The third part is centered on the estimation of the methods used for the collection of data. The first results show that these are not efficient. The critical analysis of the database, the result and the experience and throughout, allowed the implementation of the collection system for the data.

Fire analysis of car park building structures

The thermal loading of an open car park building structure is going to be analysed, based on different fire scenarios that depend on the type of vehicle (different heat release rate). The compartment is going to be fixed and the thermal effect on beams is going to be analysed, depending on the vehicle position. The result of simple calculation method will be used to determine several temperature-time curves. The simple calculation method (Hasemi method) is also to be compared with the calculations of the Elefir-EN calculation program to analyse the thermal effect of the localized fire on beams.

Protecção contra descargas atmosféricas: aplicação informática de identificação das vulnerabilidades das edificações e de apoio à concepção da protecção

A concepção de instalações eléctricas deve garantir condições de segurança para as pessoas e equipamentos. Para tal é exigida, quer por força de regulamentação ou de normalização, a instalação de dispositivos que garantam a detecção e a protecção contra os defeitos mais comuns nas instalações eléctricas como, por exemplo, as sobreintensidades e as sobretensões. Susceptíveis de criar sobretensões perigosas nas instalações eléctricas, as descargas atmosféricas podem ainda causar danos estruturais elevados, o que, em algumas actividades económicas, torna fundamental a implementação de medidas de protecção contra este fenómeno natural. A protecção contra descargas atmosféricas directas consiste em identificar as vulnerabilidades das estruturas e, nesses locais, implementar dispositivos de captura, direccionamento e escoamento da descarga atmosférica à terra, em condições de segurança. O presente trabalho, desenvolvido no âmbito da dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia Electrotécnica, visa desenvolver e implementar uma ferramenta computacional, baseada em programas de desenho assistido por computador (CAD) de utilização corrente na área de projecto de arquitectura e de engenharia, que permita, no âmbito de normas internacionais, a análise e implementação de sistemas de protecção em edifícios contra descargas atmosféricas de uma forma rápida e expedita. Baseado num programa CAD 3D, que permite a modelização tridimensional das estruturas a proteger, a ferramenta desenvolvida tentará identificar as suas vulnerabilidades das estruturas às descargas atmosféricas directas, com o intuito de implementar as medidas de protecção mais adequadas do ponto de vista técnico económico. Prevê-se que a ferramenta resultante deste estudo, o Simulador do Modelo Electrogeométrico (SIMODEL), possibilite aos projectistas e particularmente aos alunos das unidades curriculares na área do projecto de instalações eléctricas da Área Departamental de Engenharia de Sistemas e Potencia e Automação (ADESPA) do ISEL, estudar e implementar sistemas de protecção contra descargas atmosféricas (SPDA) baseados na normalização internacional do CENELEC e da IEC, nomeadamente as normas da série 62305.

Projecto de fundações e estrutura de um edifício de 4 pisos em Lisboa, destinado a habitação

O objectivo deste trabalho consiste na elaboração de um projecto de estruturas de um edifício, desde a fase de concepção estrutural até à fase de pormenorização, passando obviamente pelo dimensionamento. O trabalho foi motivo para aplicação dos conhecimentos adquiridos durante o curso, na prática de projecto de estruturas, nomeadamente na utilização da regulamentação europeia de estruturas que está para entrar em vigor. O projecto foi elaborado a partir do projecto base de arquitectura e diz respeito a um conjunto de 4 edifícios de habitação separados por junta de dilatação, a construir em Lisboa. A estrutura em betão armado constituída por lajes fungiformes maciças apoiadas em pilares, paredes de betão e vigas, foi analisada com recurso a um programa de cálculo automático de elementos finitos SAP 200 V14.2.4. Para a execução deste trabalho recorreu-se à regulamentação europeia, nomeadamente o Eurocódigo 0, o Eurocódigo 1, o Eurocódigo 2 e o Eurocódigo 8, na sua versão final de Norma Portuguesa. Os critérios de dimensionamento bem como as disposições construtivas relativas a armaduras de betão são detalhadamente referidos ao longo do trabalho. Embora a análise estrutural tenha sido efectuada para quatro edifícios, os desenhos de pormenorização de betão armado são apresentados relativamente apenas ao edifício Nº1. Optou-se por esta solução em virtude de os edifícios serem semelhantes.

Projeto de estrutura variante de um edifício de escritórios em Lisboa

Trabalho de Projecto para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Civil na Área de Especialização de Estruturas

Diagnóstico de estruturas de madeira em serviço num palacete do século XIX

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Civil na Área de Especialização em Edificações

Projecto de execução do centro comercial Mercado da Praia: Cidade da Praia: Cabo Verde

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Civil