Resilience analysis of road tunnels subject to refurbishment work

After some tragic fire events,Directive 2004/54/EC was issued to ensure a minimum safety level for tunnels belonging to the Trans-European Road Network longer than 500 m.Nowadays,most of the Italian road tunnels are still not in compliance with the minimum safety requirements,thus refurbishment works are often planned.By developing a traffic macro-simulation model,this paper aims at assessing the resilience of an existing twin-tube motorway tunnel when one of its tubes is partially or completely closed due to planned activities.Several scenarios were investigated,also considering the availability or not of an alternative itinerary in the surrounding transportation network.The average vehicles’speed was used as a functionality parameter,while the resilience metrics were the resilience loss,the recovery speed,and the resilience index.The findings showed higher resilience losses for complete closure rather than partial closure of the tube under planned refurbishment works.The implementation of digital technologies,such as variable message signs,might reduce the resilience loss of the tunnel system.This research might represent a reference for tunnel management agencies in the choice of the most appropriate traffic control strategy to improve tunnel resilience in the event of planned activities.

Architecture as a Means of Developing Social Exchange:Learning from a Danish Case Study of Refurbishment and Urban Transformation in a Disadvantaged Housing Area

Disadvantaged housing areas from the postwar period typically consist of relatively monotonous and monofunctional multi-storey blocks and have a separate traffic system rendering the areas isolated enclaves in the urban fabric.It is argued that this spatial isolation contributes to social isolation,and current refurbishments are therefore aimed at linking the housing areas with the surrounding neighbourhoods to enable social exchange between the residents and people from the surrounding areas.Based on a case study in a Danish social housing area,this paper discusses to what extent architectural development and urban strategic transformations can contribute to enabling social exchange in disadvantaged housing areas.Do neighbours enter the disadvantaged housing area as intended?If so,how does this influence their perception of the housing area?The analysis shows that architectural development and urban transformations are interdependent in establishing a social mix in disadvantaged housing areas.It is argued that refurbishments can reduce the stigma surrounding the housing area and its residents.However,the applicability of such strategies is highly dependent on the local context of the housing area.

A Study on the Impact of Urban River Refurbishment to the Thermal Environment of Surrounding Residential Area

In this study, a simulation was conducted targeting Beomeo stream of Daegu, for the purpose of the quantitative determination of the changes in thermal environment of surrounding residential areas according to the urban river refurbishment. For the study method, the reviews of literature and model verification were conducted, and then the results were derived through the process of comparing and analyzing the thermal environment resulting from the river refurbishment of the target area. As a result of the model verification, the accuracy of modeling was 95%. As a result of a simulation of the target area, in respect of the fluctuation of temperature, the temperature decreased by 1.33°C more in the daytime than in the night time, due to the river refurbishment. In respect of the positions, the decrease of the temperature was 1.33°C at 2 pm at position 1, the position of river refurbishment, and the highest in the entire time slots. Also, the changes in temperature increasingly decreased from position 1 to position 4. It seemed that it was because there was the highest radiant heat at position 1 with the biggest gap between artificial mulching and natural mulching, and the effect of the gap in the radiant heat influenced successively over position 2, 3 and 4. Lastly, in respect of the effect of river refurbishment on the surrounding area, the effect reached to position 3, in other word, 60 meters from the river.

Energy Saving Potential Due to Refurbishment of Federal Public Housing in the UAE

This paper, computer energy modeling is used to estimate the potential energy savings of refurbishing existing public federal housing in the United Arab Emirates. Such houses are built by the UAE Ministry of Public Works (MoPW) in five of the seven emirates that make up the UAE federation. The energy modeling was performed using the Integrated Environmental Solutions-Virtual Environment (IES-VE) commercial software. The study covered representative MoPW houses built in the period of 1974-2012. The results indicate potential energy savings upto 30.8% for the case of model 717 when refurbished to 2 Pearls standards compared to the as built configuration. The results showed little benefit in going from 1 Pearl to 2 Pearls refurbishment level. Thus 1 Pearl seems to be the most practical. This shows the high potential for energy, and thus environmental, savings should refurbishment be carried out on the homes built by the MoPW.

Inter-Organizational Conflict (IOC) in Building Refurbishment Projects;an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) approach

Over the past years,there has been an expanding intrigued in building refurbishment projects because of the alter in financial conditions and the accentuation on sustainable development.Increasing demand for building refurbishment projects will lead to an increase in organizational interactions in the construction works as building refurbishment works involve interactions among many different organizations and it can cause Inter-Organizational conflict(IOC)among organizations involved in projects.This paper adopted an Exploratory Factor Analysis(EFA)approach to analyses IOC in building refurbishment projects.For this study,a fivepoint Likert Scale was adopted to ensure the instruments of the study are reliable.The researcher ultimately sent questionnaires as a web-link and email invitation to 1050 construction firms and 733 architectural firms.The questionnaire sent to managers and professionals from construction and architectural firms in Malaysia.Finally,one-hundred-seventy-nine(179)refurbishment projects formed a database for this paper.The finding of this paper shows the IOC factors that contribute to the improve the performance of building refurbishment project can be conflict during the construction stage,conflict between the client and the consultant,task expectations,basic responsibilities,final duration,project’s goals,conflict between the client and the contractor,final cost,final quality,standards of behaviors,conflict between the contractor and the consultant,interference and conflict during the design stage.

Performance evaluation of operational energy use in refurbishment, reuse, and conservation of heritage buildings for optimum sustainability

The operational phase of a building project has increasingly gained importance with their energy performance becoming valuable and determining their operational excellence. In most heritage building projects （HBPs）, the operational energy use aspects are less considered, and a systematic way of analyzing their energy performance following project delivery is often lacking, The aim of this study is to evaluate the operational performance of refurbishment and reuse of UK listed church projects. The objective is to assess the operational energy use with a view to optimizing their sustafnabie performance. The methodology includes eight selected case study buildings refurbished and converted for multipurpose use. The case study approach provided qualitative insights into how the study contributes to a more structured requirements for energy management in HBPs with specific attention to energy-efficient building operations. The findings show the need to focus on fundamental areas of operational management （i.e. by developing and implementing more focused policy on operational energy performance of heritage buildings） to minimize the energy required to operate them. The challenges of implementing changes in operational energy performance improvement of heritage buildings are addressed in the form of recommendations that could Lead to real results. The study concludes that leveraging these areas requires commitment from all heritage building stakeholders because they all have substantial roles in harmonizing the requirement for the project＇s sustainability and not just the building operators. Meanwhile, baseline project planning, periodic updating, monitoring, and managing the energy use pattern are suggested as measures that could greatly facilitate better energy performance to optimizing their sustainable reuse compared with the traditional approach of trying to improve their thermal performance.

Metamodeling and multicriteria analysis for sustainable and passive residential building refurbishment: A case study of French housing stock

For the energy-related issues that the world is facing nowadays,the renovation of the building stock is one of the major challenges.The objective of this study is to present an approach that helps to develop a multi-criteria decision support tool dedicated to the rehabilitation of sustainable and passive energy housing by integrating heating energy needs,economic,social and environmental criteria throughout the life cycle stages of the building.The methodology consists of developing metamodels to predict heating energy needs from polynomial regression,design of experiments method and thermo-aeraulic simulations of building behavior.This metamodel is used to carry out a combinatorial study of real technical solutions.The methodology was applied to a real-life existing building located in La Rochelle city(France)based on an in-situ energy diagnosis.Three multicriteria analysis methods were studied and compared:weighted sum,Min-Max and Pareto concept.Furthermore,technical constraints as well as owner preferences and performance constraints have been studied.Optimal technical solutions have been obtained in order to meet the various criteria studied.In addition,window shading and natural ventilation have been proposed to reduce the thermal discomfort rate in summer.This study was extended to all French regions.Finally,this method can be transformed into a decision support tool which will be useful for architects,engineers and stockholders.

An optimisation process to motivate effective adoption of BIM for refurbishment of complex buildings in New Zealand

Despite the multidisciplinary networks involved in refurbishment of complex building projects,the lack of BIM adoption signifies lack of real BIM benefits towards acceptance of BIM within Architecture,Engineering and Construction(AEC).To this end,this study empirically examines the potential real benefits between traditional network and BIM network for a real-time refurbishment case study project,through agentbased simulation modelling.A social network analysis theory is adapted to model the project interaction networks and a BIM prototype network.An assessment of the main stakeholders for BIM perception is carried out.We offered three prototype interaction networks for comparison of real BIM benefit.An agent-based Bayesian network model is used to simulate the propagation of design error within the project networks.The result of the analysis show that BIM project diffuses error efficiently,while stakeholders recovers faster and nearly at the same time than traditional network.The optimised network shows better performance to the traditional network,when there is early involvement of subcontractors.The main contribution of this study is providing a novel approach to compare real benefits for traditional method to BIM method for refurbishment project and to provide avenue for project stakeholders to optimise their interaction through adoption of BIM.

The Italian Construction Sector Scenario between Economic Crisis and the Need for More Energy Efficiency

The paper presents the main aspects of contemporary Italian scenario of construction sector,underlying the importance of renoval in the next years,especially concerning energy efficiency retrofit.Moreover,the paper includes two important case studies in Italy,housing and schools buildings,which both present great needs of refurbishment.

Comparative study on microstructure evolution and failure mechanisms of ordinary and refurbished EB-PVD TBC under cyclic oxidation

Refurbishment of thermal barrier coating(TBC)has become a valuable technique to prolong the service life of high-temperature components.This study investigates the effect of the refurbishment process(coating removal and recoating)on the microstructure evolution and physical properties of TBC,including oxidation characteristics,element diffusion behavior,and crack failure mechanisms.The results showed that a certain amount of interdiffusion zone(IDZ)with Cr-rich would be retained in DD6 superalloy substrate after coating removal.The microstructure of the refurbished specimens showed equiaxedβ-NiAl phases,while the ordinary specimens have elongated grain shapes with a high aspect ratio.Moreover,mixed oxides in the refurbished TBC specimens were earlier observed during cyclic oxidation,with a greater thickness compared to ordinary TBC,due to the influence of BC layer phase sizes.The growth mechanism of thermally grown oxide(TGO-Al_(2)O_(3)layer)in the refurbished TBC specimens was also different,resulting from the different mechanisms of mixed oxides growth.Furthermore,under cyclic oxidation with water quenching at 1100℃,the cracks in the refurbished specimen tend to occur in the mixed oxides layer,while the cracks in the ordinary specimen occur in the top coat(TC)layer,attributing to the earlier and thicker mixed oxides layer formed in refurbished specimens.

Heritage attributes of post-war housing in Amsterdam

Modern heritage,particularly post-war social housing estates,is struggling with negative perceptions.Accordingly,this research aims to contribute to a better understanding of the heritage significance of post-war housing estates in general and the Western Garden Cities-a post-war neighborhood in Amsterdam-in particular.A review of the limited body of literature on the heritage significance of modern and post-war housing estates was performed.A significance assessment was conducted on a sample of representative case studies by using expert interviews for data collection.The experts assigned significance levels to attributes based on whether or not they need to be preserved during a sustainable refurbishment.The highest-valued attributes are parcellation,balconies,and semi-public green spaces.The most negative value was assigned to the application of external insulation,replacement of the window frames by PVC-U,and closed character of the fa(c)ades on the ground floor level.The lack of heritage recognition at the lower scale level may either be due to the important details already being lost or details not yet consistently being recognized as the architecture and buildings are understudied in comparison with the urban qualities of post-war heritage.