An overview of Prevention through Design (PtD): The architect’s role in the lifecycle of building safety performance

The notion of Prevention through Design (PtD) has been used extensively to mitigate any potential hazard and minimize residual risks during the early design phase. However, there are hurdles in implementing the PtD concept, such as lack of enforcement in terms of legislation and guideline, thus decreasing architects’ responsibilities towards implementing PtD in the design and planning stage. Therefore, the review was motivated to highlight the PtD concept and the architect’s responsibility to build safety performance throughout its entire lifecycle. The finding of this paper reveals the themes that influence the role of architects towards adopting the PtD concept, which in turn affects the safety of the whole building lifecycle. Since this paper focuses solely on the role of architects, further development of the topic can be aimed towards other roles of consultants.

BIM in Early Design Phase: Workflow for Preliminary Assessment with SBToolCZ

Early design phase provides the highest potential for saving emissions and energy. Building Information Modeling (BIM) in cooperation with environmental assessment can be efficient tools for various kinds of analysis. This paper shows a possible workflow of using data from BIM in an online form for an early building assessment. Different methods of data export are also described. Czech national methodology, SBToolCZ was used for this study. However, the described principles are applicable for any other commonly used method. Results show approximately 60% of precision compared to the full SBToolCZ assessment (depends on the building typology). As an outcome of the study, a free online tool for architects and public usage is being developed.

Industrial Digital Twins based on the non-linear LATIN-PGD

Digital Twins, which tend to intervene over the entire life cycle of products from early design phase to predictive maintenance through optimization processes, are increasingly emerging as an essential component in the future of industries. To reduce the computational time reduced-order modeling (ROM) methods can be useful. However, the spread of ROM methods at an industrial level is currently hampered by the difficulty of introducing them into commercial finite element software, due to the strong intrusiveness of the associated algorithms, preventing from getting robust and reliable tools all integrated in a certified product. This work tries to circumvent this issue by introducing a weakly-invasive reformulation of the LATIN-PGD method which is intended to be directly embedded into Simcenter Samcef$$^{\hbox {TM}}$$ TM finite element software. The originality of this approach lies in the remarkably general way of doing, allowing PGD method to deal with not only a particular application but with all facilities already included in such softwares—any non-linearities, any element types, any boundary conditions...—and thus providing a new high-performance all-inclusive non-linear solver.

Improvement of the Parallel Compressor Model and Application to Inlet Flow Distortion

This paper introduces a semi-analytical approach which enables one to deal with distorted inflow in axial fans or compressors. It is inspired by the classical parallel compressor (PC) theory but relies on a local flow-loading coefficient formalism. It is applied to non-uniform flow conditions to study the aerodynamic behavior of a low-speed fan in response to upstream flow distortion. Experimental measurements and 3D RANS simulations are used to evaluate the prediction of fan performance obtained with the local PC method. The comparison proves that, despite its simplicity, the present approach enables to correctly capture first order phenomena, offering interesting perspectives for an early design phase if different fan geometries are to be tested and if the upstream distortion maps are available.

Co-Design of a Trustworthy AI System in Healthcare: Deep Learning Based Skin Lesion Classifier

This paper documents how an ethically aligned co-design methodology ensures trustworthiness in the early design phase of an artificial intelligence (AI) system component for healthcare. The system explains decisions made by deep learning networks analyzing images of skin lesions. The co-design of trustworthy AI developed here used a holistic approach rather than a static ethical checklist and required a multidisciplinary team of experts working with the AI designers and their managers. Ethical, legal, and technical issues potentially arising from the future use of the AI system were investigated. This paper is a first report on co-designing in the early design phase. Our results can also serve as guidance for other early-phase AI-similar tool developments.

Transient Numerical Modelling of the Pin-in-Paste Technology

The pin-in-paste technology is an advancing soldering technology for assembling complex electronic products, which include both surface-mounted and through-hole components. A computational fluid dynamics model was established to investigate the stencil printing step of this technology, where the hole-filling by the solder pastes is the most critical factor for acquiring reliable solder joints. The geometry of the transient numeric model included the printing squeegee, the stencil, and the through-holes of a printed circuit board with different geometries and arrangements. A two-phase fluid model (solder paste + air) was applied, utilizing the Volume of Fluid method (VoF). The rheological properties of the solder paste were addressed by an exhaustive viscosity model. It was found that the set of through-holes affected the flow-field and yielded a decrease in the hole-filling if they were arranged in parallel with the travelling direction of the printing squeegee. Similar disturbance on the flow-field was found for oblong-shaped through-holes if they were arranged in parallel with the squeegee movement. The findings imply that the arrangement of a set of through-holes and the orientation of oblong-shaped through-holes should be optimized even in the early design phase of electronic products and during the set of assembly processes. The soldering failures in pin-in-paste technology can be reduced by these early design-phase considerations, and the first-pass yield of electronic soldering technologies can be enhanced.

Influence of the Inherent Safety Principles on Quantitative Risk in Process Industry: Application of Genetic Algorithm Process Optimization (GAPO)

Inherent safety (IS) refers to a set of measures that enhance the safety level of processes and equipment, rendering additional equipment and/or add-ons. The early design phase of processes is suited best for implementation of IS strategies as some of such strategies either are impossible to be implemented at the operation phase or substantially increase costs. The purpose of this study is to present a new approach called genetic algorithm process optimization (GAPO), by which processes can be made inherently safer even at the operation phase. This study simulates the IS principle, assessing its impact on quantitative risk and the possible consequences of process incidents identified by Hazard and Operation Study (HAZOP). The principle of intensification was simulated through GAPO, and feasibility of implementation was approved by HYSYS. Moreover, the integrated inherent safety index (I2SI) was used to evaluate and quantify the level of IS following implementation of GAPO compared to the initial design. Our result shows that GAPO substantially reduced the risk of consequences and quantitative risks and concomitantly improved the I2SI. The proposed GAPO can be applied to process operation as an approach to enhance IS at no cost and without decrease in production.