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Throw in the i-Drone
Get PDFAlthough many consider drones to be toys, multiple industries, such as the agriculture and mining industry, already know what advantages professional Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can offer. However, many companies in the construction industry do not seem to be familiar yet with the possible advantages of UAVs for their projects. In our 3TU Lighthouse project “Throw in the I-drone” we, the University of Twente, Delft University of Technology, and BeemFlights, would like to make the construction industry aware of the possibilities UAVs have by demonstrating possible usages, by providing a protocol on how to use them and by simplifying the interpretation of data collected
PolyArch
Get PDFThe challenge of the future is to minimize the energy consumption of buildings while maintaining an optimal comfort level in the interior. Controlling the energy streams in and out of the building , and especially daylight management, plays an important role. It deals with many, sometimes conflicting functions of the building:Generally a maximum of natural lighting is desired to reduce the need for lighting energy which in today’s buildings accounts for approximately 30% of the total electricity demand. But daylight contains a lot of energy. We need to block sun radiation in summer to prevent overheating, whereas in winter this incoming energy is desired to reduce the need for heating energy.By means of the PolyArch project we aim at clarifying the energy savings potential as well as identifying the technological challenges that need to be tackled in order to get PolyArch market ready. Prototypes of the product will be displayed and tested in the LightVan, a mobile light laboratory.
A sustainable life-cycle method
Get PDFThe need for innovative and cost effective approaches for infrastructure maintenance has never been more crucial. In fact, this has been a popular topic in technical reports like the McGraw Hill Construction, the Dutch Cobouw construction magazine and the new multidisciplinary journal “Infrastructure Asset Management” by the Institution of Civil Engineers. The financial status of Industrial Parks (IP) and Business Parks (BP) in the Netherlands, as well as in the rest of the world, has been greatly influenced by the 2007-2008 financial crisis. As a consequence, several IPs and BPs have suffered from infrastructural deterioration that needs to be revitalized.Therefore, one of the priorities facing municipalities nowadays is stimulating companies to invest and redefine such areas with the goal of improving its economic output and optimize the expenditure on its maintenance costs. The different stakeholders involved in the life-cycle management of these parks make strategic decisions based on data that has been gathered over time by its users, either private or public. However, gathering data is becoming more and more complex with time. Infrastructures in these parks are increasingly demanding custom supply of services by the private industry to cope with their technical operations.As a consequence, the level of detail of the assets information is very high. Hence, the digital collaboration and interoperability has become almost mandatory for enabling proper management in construction areas. Interoperability can be described as the ability of making systems and organization work together
Geometric information provider platform
Get PDFRenovation of existing buildings is known as an essential stage in reduction of the energy loss. Considerable part of renovation process depends on geometric reconstruction of building based on semantic parameters. Following many research projects which were focused on parameterizing the energy usage, various energy modelling methods were developed during the last decade. On the other hand, by developing accurate measuring tools such as laser scanners, the interests of having accurate 3D building models are rapidly growing. But the automation of 3D building generation from laser point cloud or detection of specific objects in that is still a challenge. The goal is designing a platform through which required geometric information can be efficiently produced to support energy simulation software. Developing a reliable procedure which extracts required information from measured data and delivers them to a standard energy modelling system is the main purpose of the project
Leafroof
Get PDFConventional solar energy collection technologies have a lot of limitations with respect to their applicability in the urban environment. The PV cells of the buildings need to be oriented towards the South at a specific angle causing restrictions on urban planning. Moreover, the aesthetics of PV cells are not well suited for building design, creating a generally dull and industrial look in urban environment.The 3TU Lighthouse Leafroof project focuses on creating a roof design, inspired by the natural shape of leaves. By incorporating the Luminescent Solar Concentrator (LSC) technology the system can collect and “trap” solar irradiation and concentrate it to a much smaller area of PV cells located at the centre or the edge of the leaf tiles.This approach allows more freedom of building orientation and roof inclination compared to the conventional PV system. Subsequently, it enhances freedom in urban planning. The goal of this project is to create a “leaf roof” prototype and form a feasible solar energy collection technology that is competitive to conventional systems
Saving Energy Battle (sEB)
Get PDF3TU Saving Energy Battle (sEB) aimed at charting post-war neighbourhoods in energy saving rankings, and take a first step in a global monitoring tool on resource efficiency. We also tested the new process of energy performance certification, in three post-war neighbourhoods of major Dutch cities: Westelijke Tuinsteden, Amsterdam; Ommoord, Rotterdam; and Mariahoeve, Den Haag.This monitoring tool and online short courses were developed online. Further, we organized an live event on 28 February 2015, where students and volunteers teamed up to assist building owners with the upload of requested information and photos. The sEB event was a great experience! Den Haag won first place (127), followed by Amsterdam (118) and Rotterdam (62)!All building owners who succeeded in uploading all needed information have obtained a definitive Energy label issued by Atriensis, free of charge. The research team has their data, to answer their research questions. Public officers and owners can inform transformation decisions on their energy savings. Ministries can compare and determine the contribution of measures as the energy performance certification to boost energy efficiency
RFID sensors to measure the energy consumption of warm mix and recycled asphalt
Get PDFGovernments, regulatory bodies and road authorities all push for and promote sustainability. Contractors respond with strategies to reduce their carbon footprints. Besides optimising their asphalt production and logistics processes, companies are investing in the development of low energy asphalt mixes.Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) is such an asphalt mixture produced at lower temperatures, thereby requiring less energy. It has recently become very popular in the Netherlands with various types of WMA products being developed by construction companies. In essence, the asphalt mix is modified to reduce the viscosity and the mixture is therefore more flexible at lower temperatures enabling more time available for a very important part of the construction process viz. COMPACTION.While essential research effort has been put into developing techniques for adjudicating WMA, optimising their composition and rationalising the design; less effort has been put into the operational handling and consequences regarding energy consumption and durability. In short, little is known about actual energy consumption during the asphalt compaction process.By placing RFID sensors into the asphalt mixture, temperatures and pressures can be measured during laboratory testing and construction, but also during usage and maintenance of the road where additional RFID sensors can be added to measure weather conditions and other long-term parameters
Landscape assessment in metropolitan areas – developing a visual indicator-based approach
Get PDFMany studies have addressed landscape preferences in rural settings, identifying key aspects and elements of the visual landscape important for people’s appreciation. Information about these characteristics of landscapes has then been used as bases for indicator frameworks linking measurable indicators to landscape aesthetic theory. However, there is a need to expand and develop these frameworks to be relevant for assessment of metropolitan landscapes. Nine key concepts, identified by Tveit et al. (2006) and Ode et al (2008), in existing frameworks for visual landscape assessment, stewardship, naturalness, complexity, imageability, visual scale, historicity, coherence, disturbance and ephemera, are revisited in a metropolitan context, identifying landscape elements and indicators relevant for measuring visual landscape character in metropolitan areas. The study reviews existing evidence of people’s landscape preferences relating to urban landscapes and links this knowledge to map-based indicators that can be used by planners and decision-makers responsible for the management and monitoring of landscapes. This paper presents the key concepts in development of a theoretical framework for visual landscape assessment in metropolitan areas
Energy efficient facade lighting: Highlighting facade structures
Get PDFThe project set out to proof that a conventional optical fibre lighting system for highlighting the structure of a façade can be operated more energy-efficiently through the substitution of the projector using a metal halide reflector lamp by a laser. This is investigated by looking into the photometric assessment of such systems as well as the electric power draw during operation. In preparation for a potential exterior demonstration installation, an additional focal point of the research was the design and testing of a weatherproof case that provides protection to the laser and the ballast. The final stage brought the different aspects of the research together and resulted in a temporary experimental setup (pilot installation) in order to showcase the validity of this novel approach
DoubleFace: Adjustable translucent system to improve thermal comfort
Get PDFThe DoubleFace project aims at developing a new product that passively improves thermal comfort of indoor and semi-indoor spaces by means of lightweight materials for latent heat storage, while simultaneously allowing daylight to pass through as much as possible. Specifically, the project aims at designing and prototyping an adjustable translucent modular system featuring thermal insulation and thermal absorption in a calibrated manner, which is adjustable according to different heat loads during summer- and wintertime. The output consists of a proof of concept, a series of performance simulations and measurement and a prototype of an adjustable thermal mass system based on lightweight and translucent materials: phase-changing materials (PCM) for latent heat storage and translucent aerogel particles for thermal insulation