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A conjuntura nacional de crescimento econômico e populacional aliada aos programas habitacionais de combate ao déficit de moradias deixa antever o contínuo aumento da demanda energética no setor residencial, que deve ser alvo de políticas públicas de promoção de eficiência energética. O objetivo da presente dissertação é investigar o potencial do Código de Obras e Edificações (COE) do Município de São Paulo enquanto instrumento regulatório de promoção de eficiência energética e apresentar sugestões com vista à revisão do atual documento. Para tal dividiu-se a pesquisa em três temas: fatores que explicam o consumo energético (direto e indireto) das edificações e estratégias de minimização desse consumo; caracterização dos códigos de eficiência energética em edificações (CEEE), com destaque para o Código de Obras, e panorama internacional e brasileiro relativamente à sua adoção; caracterização do consumo energético do Município de São Paulo e análise dos requisitos de eficiência energética no atual COE. Atendendo à elevada taxa de novas construções e ao estoque de edifícios obsoletos com potencial de retrofitting defende-se que o Código de Obras, pela sua abrangência e obrigatoriedade, constitui um instrumento regulatório adequado à promoção da eficiência energética no setor de edificações no Município de São Paulo e sugere-se a revisão do atual COE com vista à introdução de requisitos de eficiência energética. Entre as sugestões apresentadas contam-se a segmentação das medidas dirigidas às moradias de interesse social e às chamadas edificações de mercado, definição de limites máximos para o valor de transmitância térmica dos elementos opacos da envoltória (paredes e cobertura) em ambientes condicionados e não condicionados e a exigência de um nível mínimo de eficiência energética para edificações e equipamentos instalados. Como contribuição da presente pesquisa cabe ainda destacar o cálculo da intensidade energética por unidade de área construída nos setores residencial e comercial no Município de São Paulo, indicador em falta na literatura e dados oficiais publicados. / The national economic and population growth in association with the housing programs to combat housing deficit are expected to result in future increase of energy demand in the residential sector. Considering the already high contribution of the building sector in the electricity consumption of Brazil, the development of policy measures aiming to promote energy efficiency in the sector should be encouraged. The main objective of this research is to investigate the potential of the Building Code (BC) of São Paulo municipality as a regulatory instrument to promote energy efficiency and make suggestions to revise it. To this end, the paper is divided in three parts: factors that explain the energy consumption (direct and indirect) of buildings and strategies to minimize it; characterization of Building Energy Efficiency Codes (BEEC) and the Brazilian and international panorama regarding its adoption; energy consumption of São Paulo municipality and analysis of energy efficiency requirements in the current BC. As a mandatory and comprehensive regulatory instrument, Building Codes are adequate do promote energy efficiency given the local reality of high annual rates of construction and the significant stock of old buildings which could benefit from retrofitting. Suggestions to a revision process of the BC of São Paulo Municipality include segmentation of energy efficient requirements according to social economic profile of buildings, definition of overall heat transfer coefficient values (U-factor) for building envelope components (walls and roof) of conditioned and non-conditioned areas, and definition of minimum energy efficiency levels for buildings and equipments. Additional contribution of this research includes estimation of electricity use per square meter of building floor area, for the residential and commercial sectors in São Paulo municipality.

A conjuntura nacional de crescimento econômico e populacional aliada aos programas habitacionais de combate ao déficit de moradias deixa antever o contínuo aumento da demanda energética no setor residencial, que deve ser alvo de políticas públicas de promoção de eficiência energética. O objetivo da presente dissertação é investigar o potencial do Código de Obras e Edificações (COE) do Município de São Paulo enquanto instrumento regulatório de promoção de eficiência energética e apresentar sugestões com vista à revisão do atual documento. Para tal dividiu-se a pesquisa em três temas: fatores que explicam o consumo energético (direto e indireto) das edificações e estratégias de minimização desse consumo; caracterização dos códigos de eficiência energética em edificações (CEEE), com destaque para o Código de Obras, e panorama internacional e brasileiro relativamente à sua adoção; caracterização do consumo energético do Município de São Paulo e análise dos requisitos de eficiência energética no atual COE. Atendendo à elevada taxa de novas construções e ao estoque de edifícios obsoletos com potencial de retrofitting defende-se que o Código de Obras, pela sua abrangência e obrigatoriedade, constitui um instrumento regulatório adequado à promoção da eficiência energética no setor de edificações no Município de São Paulo e sugere-se a revisão do atual COE com vista à introdução de requisitos de eficiência energética. Entre as sugestões apresentadas contam-se a segmentação das medidas dirigidas às moradias de interesse social e às chamadas edificações de mercado, definição de limites máximos para o valor de transmitância térmica dos elementos opacos da envoltória (paredes e cobertura) em ambientes condicionados e não condicionados e a exigência de um nível mínimo de eficiência energética para edificações e equipamentos instalados. Como contribuição da presente pesquisa cabe ainda destacar o cálculo da intensidade energética por unidade de área construída nos setores residencial e comercial no Município de São Paulo, indicador em falta na literatura e dados oficiais publicados. / The national economic and population growth in association with the housing programs to combat housing deficit are expected to result in future increase of energy demand in the residential sector. Considering the already high contribution of the building sector in the electricity consumption of Brazil, the development of policy measures aiming to promote energy efficiency in the sector should be encouraged. The main objective of this research is to investigate the potential of the Building Code (BC) of São Paulo municipality as a regulatory instrument to promote energy efficiency and make suggestions to revise it. To this end, the paper is divided in three parts: factors that explain the energy consumption (direct and indirect) of buildings and strategies to minimize it; characterization of Building Energy Efficiency Codes (BEEC) and the Brazilian and international panorama regarding its adoption; energy consumption of São Paulo municipality and analysis of energy efficiency requirements in the current BC. As a mandatory and comprehensive regulatory instrument, Building Codes are adequate do promote energy efficiency given the local reality of high annual rates of construction and the significant stock of old buildings which could benefit from retrofitting. Suggestions to a revision process of the BC of São Paulo Municipality include segmentation of energy efficient requirements according to social economic profile of buildings, definition of overall heat transfer coefficient values (U-factor) for building envelope components (walls and roof) of conditioned and non-conditioned areas, and definition of minimum energy efficiency levels for buildings and equipments. Additional contribution of this research includes estimation of electricity use per square meter of building floor area, for the residential and commercial sectors in São Paulo municipality.

The building sector accounts for approximately 40 percent of our energy use. To reach existing environmental targets energy use will have to be reduced in all building types. At the European level, the main legislative instrument for improving the energy efficiency of the building stock is the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The EPBD requires all member states to implement the directive in the building code and it also requires energy declarations to be performed at the building level. The first objective of this thesis is to describe energy use in shopping malls in Sweden and to suggest how this energy use can be reduced. The second objective is to determine whether current regulatory requirements are effective in promoting energy efficiency measures in Swedish shopping malls. Only limited background information was found from national energy statistics and scientific papers that deal specifically with energy use in shopping malls. The data available are difficult to analyse and compare due to inconsistencies in terminology regarding nomenclature and system boundaries. An improved terminology is presented in the thesis, with a distinction between organisationally and functionally divided energy, to facilitate future studies. Furthermore, when it comes to designing shopping malls and evaluating their energy use, correct input data are required. For calculations and simulations of energy demand in buildings, internal and external load patterns are important input data. The thesis provides occupancy, lighting and infiltration load data for shopping malls. Energy use in one shopping mall was investigated in detail and resulted in a validated calculation model for the prediction of energy use. To develop the calculation model an iterative empirical-theoretical methodology was used. It involved cross-checking measured data, assumptions related to operational and technical data, and model calculation results. The calculation model was then used for a more general analysis of energy efficiency measures and an evaluation of regulatory requirements. The thesis illustrates how the current building code and energy declarations are implemented in shopping malls today together with associated strengths and weaknesses.

This thesis analyses and evaluates the placement of buildings according to the building code. The thesis has two parts: in the theoretical part, it describes the building code and basic concepts related to the placement of buildings, and analyses the forms of planning permission in detail. Since the issue of the placement of buildings is quite extensive, it is the thesis deals with the exceptions of buildings situation rules more in detail, namely with Decree No. 501/2006 Coll. The second, practical part, shows the procedure of proceedings these exceptions on three examples from Brno-venkov region. At the end of the thesis, goals and results of the work are evaluated.

Detta examensarbete undersöker tidsåtgången av två skilda planprocesser. Det ena projektet beläget i Sverige och det andra i Tyskland. Anledningen till att jämförelsen gjordes med Tyskland är på grund av deras paragraf 34. Paragrafen innebär att nybyggnation kan ske utanför ett detaljplanerat område inom tätort och har på senare tid varit omtalad i svensk media. Byggbolagen i Sverige anser idag att det är en omständlig process från projektidé till byggstart och begär en förändring i planprocessen för att kunna påskynda byggandet. Befolkningen växer i framför allt storstäderna och det byggs för få bostäder för att kunna tillgodose efterfrågan. En av de bidragande orsakerna till att det byggs för lite är en allt för långt utdragen planprocess. Undersökningen av planprocessen för de två projekt i denna rapport har utförts genom analys av deras respektive detaljplaner. Dessutom genomfördes intervjuer med Sveriges Byggindustrier(BI), Sveriges kommuner och landsting(SKL) och NCC för att erhålla deras bild av den svenska planprocessen. Resultatet visade att planprocessen var 1,9 år längre i Sverige och att det skiljde sig mellan de två projektens planförfaranden. Programskedet tog längst tid i Sverige och i Tyskland tog programskedet och samrådet lika lång tid. Undersökningen visade också att slutpriset för två likartade husprojekt i respektive land skiljde sig med cirka 51 % billigare pris för det tyska projektet. Till detta kan det påpekas att byggprisindex är lägre i Tyskland och de har en effektivare produktutveckling, som är ett led i en snabbare planprocess. Vid en kortare planprocess kan kapitalkostnaden minskas och ur kundens perspektiv innebär det att slutpriset kan sänkas. Det finns flera orsaker till varför bostadsbyggandet inte flyter på trots den rådande bostadsbristen. Ett är att det tar för lång tid i hanteringen kring dokumentation av handlingar i de olika skedena i planprocessen. Därutöver tar överklagandeprocessen en lång tid och ett förslag är att färre instanser skulle påskynda processen. Vidare rekommenderas tydligare riktlinjer i PBL, slopande av kommunala särkrav och att inte detaljplanera mer än nödvändigt. Det behövs en förändring av den svenska planprocessen för att påskynda bostadsbyggandet. Färre instanser under överklagandeprocessen, bättre riktlinjer i PBL och tydligare hantering i kommuner, införande av en mer enhetlig regeluppsättning över hela Sverige och att inte detaljplanera om det inte är nödvändigt. Dessa rekommendationer skulle förbättra den svenska planprocessen. / This thesis examines time and cost consumption under two different planning processes. One project located in Sweden and the other in Germany. The main reason why the comparison was done in relation to Germany is because of an article on paragraph 34.This paragraph has recently been in Swedish media and construction companies in Sweden are requesting a change in the planning process to make it easier and faster to build houses. The population is growing, especially in the larger cities and the buildings fail to meet the demands required by the city. The main reason being that they build far too few homes because of an inefficient planning process. The planning process for these two projects has been carried out through analysis of their planning documents. In addition, interviews were conducted with the Swedish Construction Organization, Sweden's municipalities and NCC to obtain their view on how the Swedish planning process works. The results showed that the planning process was 1.9 years longer in Sweden. The program period took the longest time in Sweden and in Germany the program period and the consultation period took equal time. The investigation revealed that the final price to the customer is about 51% less in Germany. Furthermore, the construction price index is lower in Germany and they have a more efficient product development. With a shorter planning process the cost of capital can be reduced and from the customer's perspective, this means that the final price can be lowered. There are many reasons as to why the buildings aren't meeting the demands despite the housing shortage. One of them is that it takes too long in the handling of documentations in the different stages of the planning process. In addition, the process of appeal takes a very long a time and one suggestion is that a fewer instances would hurry up the planning process. Further recommendations would be that the guidelines in the regulations should be clearer and easier to follow and not to plan in detail more than necessarily. The Swedish planning process needs to change to accelerate the housing construction. Fewer instances during the appeal process, better guidelines in PBL and clearer management in municipalities, create a more uniform set of rules across Sweden and no detailed plan if it is not necessary. These recommendations would improve the Swedish planning process.

<div> <div> <p>Building Information Modeling (BIM) serves as an important media in supporting automation in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) domain. However, with its fast development by different software companies in different applications, data exchange became labor-intensive, costly, and error-prone, which is known as the problem of interoperability. Industry foundation classes (IFC) are widely accepted to be the future of BIM in solving the challenge of BIM interoperability. However, there are practical limitations of the IFC standards, e.g., IFC’s flexibility creates space for misuses of IFC entities. This incorrect semantic information of an object can cause severe problems to downstream uses. To address this problem, the author proposed to use the concept of invariant signatures, which are a new set of features that capture the essence of an AEC object. Based on invariant signatures, the author proposed a rule-based method and a machine learning method for BIM-based AEC object classification, which can be used to detect potential misuses automatically. Detailed categories for beams were tested to have error-free performance. The best performing algorithm developed by the methods achieved 99.6% precision and 99.6% recall in the general building object classification. To promote automation and further improve the interoperability of BIM tasks, the author adopted invariant signature-based object classification in quantity takeoff (QTO), structural analysis, and model validation for automated building code compliance checking (ACC). Automation in such BIM tasks was enabled with high accuracy.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p> </div> </div>

National studies suggest that eighty percent of existing code professionals are expected to retire within the next fifteen years. As part of this research, it was determined that approximately half of all licensed building inspectors in the State of Utah will reach retirement age within the next ten years. As building inspectors make up a large part of the Code Professional Industry this demographic was selected as the focus of this research. The purpose of this research project was to assess the urgent need for new entrants into the Code Professional Industry in Utah. As part of this research, trends within the local industry over a 20 year period were evaluated. A statewide survey of over 300 licensed building inspectors was conducted to investigate the demographics of the industry, and gain first-hand insight from individual code professionals. This research was successful in quantifying the size of the Code Professional Industry in Utah, and numbering the populations of certified professionals in each individual code discipline. In addition, projected losses were established within each code discipline, discovering many disciplines in which over 50% of current professionals would be lost within a ten year period. In addition projections were made contrasting the number of code professionals leaving the industry versus the small anticipated number of individuals entering the industry. This research conclusively predicts a steady and dramatic decline in the number of licensed code professionals, unless the industry actively works toward addressing the issue. The group of aging code professionals possess a level of knowledge and experience not easily replaced. This study was based on an extensive statewide survey of licensed building inspectors in Utah, and collected opinions, concerns and insights directly from the Code Professional Industry. The findings of this study provide a unique look at this specialized industry within a single state. The lessons learned likely apply to populations of code professionals in other locations. This study concluded that a combination of phased retirement, modified work duties and mentoring programs would be of great benefit to the Code Professional Industry, by allowing the transfer of knowledge between the outgoing generation and the future generation of code professionals.

<p>Composite Plate Shear Walls - Concrete Filled (C-PSW/CF), also known as SpeedCore walls, are increasingly used in commercial buildings. C-PSW/CF offer the advantages of modularization and expedited construction time. The performance of C-PSW/CF under wind and seismic loading has been extensively studied. As such, building codes permit the use of these walls in non-seismic and seismic regions. In addition to these lateral loads, C-PSW/CF may be exposed to fire loading during their service life. Elevated temperatures resulting from the fire loading subject structural components to a set of forces and deformations. These elevated temperatures result in the significant degradation of the material properties. Thus, fire loading may lead to the failure of structural components during fire incidents within the buildings.</p> <p>This dissertation describes (i) experimental, numerical, and analytical studies conducted to evaluate the performance of C-PSW/CF and (ii) the development of design guidelines for C-PSW/CF subjected to fire and gravity loading. The results from prior experimental investigations were compiled, and five additional fire tests were conducted to address gaps in the experimental data. The fire tests were conducted on laboratory-scale specimens subjected to axial compressive loading and simulated standard fire loading (heating). The parameters considered in the tests were axial compressive loading (21% – 30% of section compressive strength, <em>Ag f’c</em>), steel plate slenderness (24 – 48, tie spacing-to-steel plate thickness ratio), and uniformity of heating (all-sided versus three-sided heating).</p> <p>Numerical and analytical studies were conducted using two independent methods namely Finite Element (FE) and Finite Difference (FD) methods. The developed models were benchmarked to test data, and the benchmarked models were used to conduct parametric studies to expand the database. The thermal and structural material properties recommended by Eurocode standards were applied in these models. The parameters considered were the wall thickness (200 mm – 600 mm), wall slenderness (story height-to-concrete thickness ratio, <em>H/tc</em>= 5 – 25), axial load ratio (<em>Pu</em> ≤ 30% section concrete strength, <em>Ac f’c</em>), heating uniformity (uniform versus non-uniform heating), boundary conditions (pinned versus fixed), cross-sectional steel plate reinforcement ratio (<em>As/Ag</em> =1.3% – 5.3%), steel plate slenderness ratio (<em>stie/tp</em> = 20 – 75), tie bar spacing-to-wall concrete thickness ratio (<em>stie/tc</em> = 0.5 – 1.0), and concrete compressive strength (<em>f’c</em> = 40 MPa – 55 MPa).</p> <p>Symmetric nonlinear thermal gradients were developed through wall thickness for the walls exposed to uniform fire loading. Due to the low thermal conductivity of concrete, the temperature decreased nonlinearly through the wall thickness towards the mid-thickness of the walls. For the non-uniform fire exposure, temperatures through the wall thickness decreased nonlinearly towards the unexposed surface of the walls. A consistent trend was observed in the axial displacements of C-PSW/CF under combined fire and gravity loading. The observed trend consisted of several steps including (i) thermal expansion, (ii) gradual axial shortening, (iii) fast axial shortening, and (iv) failure.</p> <p>Local buckling of steel plates between tie bars was observed in all walls. However, this phenomenon did not cause any significant degradation in structural performance or failure of the walls. The results from parametric studies indicated that wall slenderness ratio (story height-to-wall thickness ratio), wall thickness, applied axial load ratio, and end boundary conditions have a significant influence on the fire resistance of C-PSW/CF. Higher wall slenderness ratios and load ratios had a detrimental effect on the fire resistance of walls. Global buckling was the dominant failure mode for the walls with high slenderness ratios (e.g., <em>H</em>/<em>tc </em>³ 15). In thicker walls, the lower temperatures in the middle regions of the concrete helped to maintain the axial compressive capacity of walls under fire loading. Limiting the steel plate slenderness ratio could slightly improve the fire resistance of unprotected walls by arresting the extent of local buckling between tie bars.</p> <p>The results from the parametric studies have been used to develop an approach for designing C-PSW/CF subjected to combined fire and gravity loading. The total (linear) length of the wall was discretized into unit width columns, where each unit width column corresponded to a length of wall equal to the tie bar spacing (<em>stie</em>). Thus, each unit is like a column with steel plates on two opposite surfaces, concrete infill, and tie bars distributed uniformly along the height. The axial load capacity of C-PSW/CF can be estimated as the axial load capacity of the unit width column, calculated using the developed approach, multiplied by the linear length of the wall divided by the unit width (tie bar spacing). For this approach, the wall slenderness ratio (<em>H/tw</em>), has a limiting value of 20. Walls with wall slenderness ratios greater than 20 should be fire protected. The expansion of the material on the exposed surface of walls generated moments through the wall cross-section in non-uniform fire scenarios. This phenomenon caused the early failure of walls (~40 minutes) with wall slenderness ratios greater than 20. An approach was developed to conservatively estimate the fire-resistance rating (in hours) of unprotected C-PSW/CF exposed to the standard fire time-temperature curve. The fire-resistance rating of C-PSW/CF depends directly on the applied axial load ratio, wall slenderness ratio, and wall thickness.</p> <p>The temperature profile through the wall thickness can be calculated by discretizing the section into fibers (or elements). Since the temperature of the elements is uniform along the height and length of walls, 1D thermal analysis (through wall thickness) can be performed using heat transfer equations or the fiber-based program developed in the study.</p> <p>Vent holes are recommended to relieve the buildup steam pressure as the moisture content of concrete evaporates at temperatures exceeding the boiling point of water. A rational method was developed to design the vent holes as a function of the maximum temperature and thermal gradient through the wall thickness, heating duration, moisture content, and the acceptable level of pressure buildup on the steel plates. However, in typical cases, unprotected C-PSW/CF walls can be provided with 25 mm diameter vent holes spaced at a distance equal to story height or 3.6 m (maximum) in the horizontal and vertical directions to relieve the buildup of steam or water vapor pressure.</p> <p>This research study also led to the development and validation of a computer program that can be used instead of the design equations to more accurately model and calculate the thermal and structural performance of composite C-PSW/CF. This program is based on a fiber-based section and member analysis method that can be used to evaluate the performance and axial (gravity) load capacity of unprotected and protected C-PSW/CF subjected to uniform or non-uniform heating. The analysis can be conducted by implementing standard (ISO 834 or ASTM E119), Eurocode parametric, or user input gas (or surface) time-temperature curves.</p> <p>The proposed equations and the recommendations in this study can be used to develop design guidelines and specifications for fire resistance design of C-PSW/CF under combined fire and gravity loading. A code change proposal will be proposed to AISC <em>Specification</em> - Appendix 4 (Structural Design for Fire Condition).</p>

This doctoral thesis consists of three essays. In the first essay I investigate the presence of productivity convergence in eight regional pulp and paper industries of U.S. and Canada over the period of 1971-2005. Expectation of productivity convergence in the pulp and paper industries of Canadian provinces and of the states of its southern neighbour is high since they are trading partners with fairly high level of exchanges in both pulp and paper products. Moreover, they share a common production technology that changed very little over the last century. I supplement the North-American regional data with national data for two Nordic countries, Finland and Sweden, which provides a scope to compare the productivity performances of four leading players in global pulp and paper industry. I find evidence in favour of the catch-up hypothesis among the regional pulp and paper industries of U.S. and Canada in my sample. The growth performance is at the advantage of Canadian provinces relative to their U.S. counterparts. However, it is not good enough to surpass the growth rates of this industry in the two Nordic countries. It is well-known that econometric productivity estimation using flexible functional forms often encounter violations of curvature conditions. However, the productivity literature does not provide any guidance on the selection of appropriate functional forms once they satisfy the theoretical regularity conditions. The second chapter of my thesis provides an empirical evidence that imposing local curvature conditions on the flexible functional forms affect total factor productivity (TFP) estimates in addition to the elasticity estimates. Moreover, I use this as a criterion for evaluating the performances of three widely used locally flexible cost functional forms - the translog (TL), the Generalized Leontief (GL), and the Normalized Quadratic (NQ) - in providing TFP estimates. Results suggest that the NQ model performs better than the other two functional forms in providing TFP estimates. The third essay capitalizes on newly available high frequency energy consumption data from commercial buildings in the District of Columbia (DC) to provide novel insights on the realized energy use impacts of energy efficiency standards in commercial buildings. Combining these data with hourly weather data and information on tenancy contract structure I evaluate the impacts of energy standards, contractual structure of utility bill payments, and energy star labeling on account level electricity consumption. Using this unique panel dataset, the analysis takes advantage of detailed building-level characteristics and the heterogeneity in the building age distribution, resulting in buildings constructed before and after mandatory energy standards came into effect. Estimation results suggest that in commercial buildings constructed under a code, electricity consumption is lower by about 0.48 kWh per cooling degree hour. When tenants pay for their own utilities, consumption is lower by 0.82 kWh per cooling degree hour. The Energy Star effect is a 0.31 kWh reduction per cooling degree hour. Finally, peak savings for all three variables of interest occur at 2pm in the summer months, whereas peak summer marginal prices at DC's local electric utility occur at 5pm.