Evaluation of the Safe and Failure Zones of Mooring and Riser Systems in a CALM Oil Terminal

The mooring and riser system is the most critical part of an offshore oil terminal. Traditionally, these two parts are designed separately without considering the nonlinear interaction between them. Thus, the present paper aims to develop an integrated design process for riser systems with a lazy-S configuration and mooring systems in the offshore catenary anchor leg mooring (CALM) oil terminal. One of the important criteria considered in this integrated design is the offset diagram and safe operation zone (SAFOP) related to the mooring system and the riser, respectively. These two diagrams are obtained separately by different analyses; therefore, codes or standards are available separately for two components. In this methodology, the diagrams of both risers and mooring lines are incorporated into a single spiral, thus identifying the safe and failure zones of risers and the mooring lines of the oil terminal. This, in turn, leads to substantial benefits in terms of overall system response, cost reduction, and safety to the offshore oil terminal. To implement this process, three different riser lengths with the lazy-S configuration are considered at three different sea depths at the terminal installation site. For each condition, the integrated design of the mooring system and riser is executed according to the derived procedure. Then, coupled dynamic models, wherein both buoys and hoses are included, are developed using OrcaFlex. Results show that the criteria of the relevant regulations are not satisfied by reducing the length of the riser relative to the designed size. Further, as water depth increases, this type of riser configuration shows good coupled performance while interacting with the mooring system. In the cross offset mode, the maximum margin is created between the offset diagram and the SAFOP diagram, while the most critical dynamic response of the tanker and terminal system occurs in the near and far modes. Therefore, with this method, the best position for the riser direction with the tanker direction is 90° in the best case.

Towards an integrated automatic design process for robot swarms

Background: The specification of missions to be accomplished by a robot swarm has been rarely discussed in the literature: designers do not follow any standardized processes or use any tool to precisely define a mission that must be accomplished. Methods: In this paper, we introduce a fully integrated design process that starts with the specification of a mission to be accomplished and terminates with the deployment of the robots in the target environment. We introduce Swarm Mission Language (SML), a textual language that allows swarm designers to specify missions. Using model-driven engineering techniques, we define a process that automatically transforms a mission specified in SML into a configuration setup for an optimization-based design method. Upon completion, the output of the optimization-based design method is an instance of control software that is eventually deployed on real robots. Results: We demonstrate the fully integrated process we propose on three different missions. Conclusions: We aim to show that in order to create reliable, maintainable and verifiable robot swarms, swarm designers need to follow standardised automatic design processes that will facilitate the design of control software in all stages of the development.

Interdisciplinary design education: development of an elective course in architecture and engineering departments

Collaboration among disciplines is becoming a standard practice in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. However, limited studies have addressed the involvement of interdisciplinarity into architectural undergraduate curricula. The study seeks to expand the literature on this topic, namely by offering an alternative model for teaching an Interdisciplinary Design Course (IDC), mainly in architectural engineering departments, with the participation of engineering departments. The authors hypothesize that by the adoption of the IDC, architecture students would have a better understanding of the nature of AEC interdisciplinary design knowledge. The study aims to highlight the value of the IDC and to test the hypothesis. A qualitative research methodology has been adopted, including the design of an experiment and then the application of a case study comprising four instructors and 24 students from four departments in the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University. Students’ design process, teamwork attitude, and own experiences on the IDC have been recorded using direct observation, interviews, and surveys. Data have been analyzed using descriptive statistics to identify the effectiveness and challenges of the experiment, in addition to the comparison with the traditional design studio. The results have shown the students’ satisfaction with collaboration with their peers from other disciplines, as it boosted their understanding of the integrated design process and increased their knowledge about each other’s discipline. In addition, architecture students commended the IDC much more than the traditional design studio.

Integrated Design Process for High-Performance Buildings; A Case Study from Dubai

Due to the scarcity of water and the harsh desert climate of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), water and energy are two of the main challenges for the design of sustainable buildings in the UAE. Relevant literature calls for the consideration of building systems and materials at the design stage to achieve high-performing buildings and to save on the operational costs of the building. The aim of this research was to design a high-performance building that meets the environmental sustainability requirements for water and energy, in the city of Dubai to reflect the technological advancements of the UAE Mars mission. This has been achieved through following an integrated design process, which was mainly focused on the evaluation and specification of the building engineering systems based on performance, besides the goal of achieving visually appealing building with advanced structural design. The performance verification of the final building design, which considered engineering systems design from conception and through the design and detailed design stages, revealed a 15% reduction in water consumption and a 60% reduction in energy consumption. This provides a valuable contribution to architectural engineering practice, by demonstrating a case study for enhancing energy and water efficiency via building design, which consequently contributes to the environmental sustainability of the built environment.

ADAPTASI INTEGRATED DESIGN PROCESS DAN PENERAPANNYA DALAM PROYEK INTERIOR

Lingkup pembangunan berkelanjutan (sustainable development) mencakup segala bidang perancangan, termasuk desain perkotaan, arsitektur, hingga interior. Tingginya lahan dan minat terhadap usaha bidang interior di perkotaan menjadi salah satu latar belakang perlunya meningkatkan pertimbangan isu berkelanjutan dalam bidang tersebut. Integrated Design Process (IDP) berpotensi diadaptasi untuk proyek interior karena kompatibel dengan sistem design-build yang banyak diminati untuk menyelesaikan proyek interior. Studi ini bertujuan untuk menemukan gambaran adaptasi IDP pada bidang interior, serta potensi dan kendala penerapannya pada proyek nyata. Strategi studi kasus digunakan untuk mencapai tujuan tersebut, penekanan studi pada kajian literatur dan proyek nyata sebuah pekerjaan interior menggunakan teknik observasi dan arsip. Disimpulkan bahwa estimasi anggaran dan pengelolaan keuangan proyek lebih efektif, mengurangi resiko kendala konstruksi, manfaat jangka panjang produk, serta meningkatkan keharmonisan hubungan antara perusahaan dan pemilik proyek, merupakan keuntungan yang diperoleh. Kendala yang ditemui adalah kenaikan biaya proyek yang dapat ditekan dengan efisiensi material dan akomodasi, serta kebutuhan lebih atas waktu dan usaha untuk mencapai mufakat pada tahap perancangan yang dapat ditekan melalui peran perancang. Hasil studi ini diharapkan mampu meningkatkan kesadaran masyarakat akan kebutuhan perencanaan dan pengelolaan yang terintegrasi untuk menghasilkan produk yang mampu berkontribusi pada pembangunan berkelanjutan. ADAPTATION OF INTEGRATED DESIGN PROCESS AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION FOR INTERIOR PROJECT “Sustainable development" encompasses design fields as a whole, including urban, architecture, and interior design. Increasing demand and interest for interior business in cities is one reason for the need to increase sustainable development issues in this field. Integrated Design Process (IDP) potential to be adapted from building to interior projects is high because it is compatible with the design-build system commonly used for interior project completion. This study aims to find an overview of IDP adaptation for the interior field and the benefits and obstacles to a real project. A case study strategy is used in this study to achieve these aims, where the emphasis is on literature searching and real project analysis using observation and archive tactics. This study concludes that the benefits are practical project budgeting and financing, reducing construction risks, and long-term benefits of product. The obstacles are the increased project cost which can be pressed by efficiency of materials and accommodation, and the time and effort to reach consensus at the design phase, which designer’s role in the project team can press. Results of this study are expected to increase public awareness of the need for integrated planning and management of interior production so it can contribute to "sustainable development".

Towards a New Paradigm for Building Science (Building Physics)

This paper presents a building construction approach that is based on forty years of experience and a focus on multi-disciplinary synergies. After 1980, the migration science-based design was accelerated by the “Integrated Design Process (IDP)”. As a result, building science became a significant force in reducing the effects of climate change. The component associated with heating, cooling, and ventilation that is labeled “Environmental Quality Management” (EQM) or EQM-retro for interior applications will be discussed. The critical aspects of EQM-retro are: (1) A two-stage process for new and retro construction that modifies financing patterns. In stage one, the object is to develop the best possible performance within an investment limit. In stage two, the cost is minimized; (2) Building Automatic Control Systems (BACS) are important for control thermal mass contributions of while achieving adaptable indoor climate as well as an integration of the HVAC system with the building structure; (3) This is achieved with use of a monitoring application and performance evaluation (MAPE); (4) Introduction of BACS and MAPE during design process improves the integration of building subsystems and energy optimization. Examples showing increaseased occupant-controlled comfort, energy efficiency and flexibility of energy demand are presented in the paper.

Improving competences of engineers and workers in the AEC industry for delivering NZEBs

The energy performance of buildings directive requires from the European Union Member States to ensure that by 31 December 2020 all new buildings are nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEBs) and after 31 December 2018, new buildings occupied/owned by the public authorities should also have the NZEB performance. The large-scale deployment of NZEBs represents a challenge for all the stakeholders involved in the construction sector, where the lack of adequate competences is identified as one of the main obstacles. This article aims to provide a solution to overcome the deficient competences related to NZEB to increase them by using roadmaps derived from Horizon projects – Fit-to-NZEB and Net-UBIEP. Fit-to-NZEB aims to increase the knowledge of architecture, engineering and construction engineers and workers in deep energy retrofit through the education in European qualifications framework levels 3–7, while Net-UBIEP seeks to develop the schemes for using building information modelling (BIM) throughout the whole building life cycle to increase energy performance. The results from both projects show that it is inevitable to act soon to make the energy efficiency targets possible to fulfil. The integrated design process and strengthen control on the construction site should be carried out perfectly as they are the most critical parts in delivering NZEBs and all this managed by BIM to minimise information loss and to improve the design of details. To achieve this, professional competences of all the stakeholders in delivering NZEBs must be improved which could be done by implementing the knowledge from these projects.

Development of a Weight Factor Method for Sustainability Decisions in Building Renovation. Case Study Using Renobuild

Energy efficiency investments have become strategically important for the European Union. In particular, energy efficient renovation and investment in the existing building stock have become major challenges. Renovation of a building should involve a holistic and integrated design process, which considers all aspects of sustainability. The aim of this work is to suggest a mathematical model that weighs economic, social and ecological aspects into a measure that supports housing owners/decision makers to find the optimal renovation alternative from their perspective, taking factors such as budget, energy consumption, etc. into consideration. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) concerns structuring and solving multiple-criteria decision problems. MCDM has become popular in energy planning as it enables the decision maker to pay attention to all the criteria available and make the appropriate decision as per the priority of the criteria. In this study, the concept is introduced based on economic, social and ecological aspects assessed during a renovation project. A pedagogical example illustrates the suggested numerical system for comparing different renovation alternatives. The suggested method will facilitate decision-making processes in renovation projects and will allow decision makers to choose the best renovation alternatives that are in line with their business ideas and principles.