<p>  </p> <p>Heating and cooling (HC) energy use account for about 40% of the total annual energy consumption and cost of an average household in the U.S and it is significantly affected by residents’ energy-related behavior. This is particularly important for low-income residents in the U.S. who spend a larger portion of their income (i.e., about 16%) on home energy costs compared to average-income households (i.e., 4%). To address opportunities for reducing residential HC energy usage without requiring physical building upgrades, this thesis presents a new paradigm for smart and connected energy-aware communities that leverage smart eco-feedback devices and social games to engage residents in understanding and reducing their home energy use.</p> <p><br></p> <p>First, this Thesis presents a new modeling approach for personalized eco-feedback design integrated with a collaborative social game to assist residents to enhance their thermostat use while promoting community-level energy savings. The modeling framework is integrated into a cloud-based application, MySmartE, with visual (wall-mounted tablet) and voice (Alexa) user interfaces to facilitate behavioral changes in a user-centric approach. The platform is deployed in a multi-unit residential community in Fort Wayne, IN and the experimental data are used to investigate: (i) how occupants’ thermostat behaviors changed after using the MySmartE app; (ii) how users interacted with the app during the game; and (iii) how was users’ experience with the developed platform. Despite the heterogeneous characteristics of households, the results from the field study show the positive effect of the intervention in the thermostat-adjustment behaviors, which results in an increase in the indoor temperature during the cooling season compared to the baseline period. Findings from the user interaction analysis and post-experiment interviews also reveal the significant potential to nudge households’ energy conservation behaviors with the developed platform along with the challenges that should be tackled to derive long-term behavior changes. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Second, this Thesis introduces a sociotechnical modeling approach based on utility theory to reveal causal effects in human decision-making and infer attributes affecting households’ thermostat responses during an eco-feedback intervention. This modeling approach (i) is based on a utility model that quantifies residents’ preferences over indoor temperatures given decision attributes related to their thermal environment and eco-feedback and (ii) incorporates latent parameters that are inferred to determine the unique behavioral characteristics of each household. For parameter learning, a hierarchical Bayesian model is developed with a non-centered parameterization and calibrated to the field data. Based on the calibration results, the proposed model quantifies the impact of the eco-feedback on households’ thermostat-adjustment behaviors and serves as a foundation for analyzing resident behavior in connected residential communities with eco-feedback energy-saving programs.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Finally, this Thesis presents a modeling approach for investigating the decision trends of residents in goal-oriented collaborative social games while considering their decision preferences and goal achievement capabilities. The proposed approach involves a mechanism design method that derives optimal decisions by conducting counterfactual simulations given various scenarios of goal and reward sets. This modeling approach (i) re-defines utility functions to include decision attributes that reflect user preferences on the game status; (ii) calibrates the model to learn the decision preferences of the residents; (iii) simulates the decision-making process of residents by solving the Nash Equilibrium for a given set of game scenarios. The results revealed the decision trends of the residents given the various goals and rewards along with the potential goal achievement trends and the resulting variations in the marginal community utility.</p>

<p>The research is aimed in order to increase the efficiency and improve the<br />energy performance of multi-level administrative buildings in temperate<br />climate conditions. Special emphasis is on achieving and maintaining<br />acceptable indoor environmental standards and thermal comfort of<br />occupants. The investigation is based on a complex multi-criteria optimization<br />utilizing the most contemporary technology of dynamic energy simulations.<br />The developed methodology for energy performance evaluation and<br />improvement in the function of occupant comfort will have the possibility of<br />application on similar and newly designed buildings. The formulated model<br />also possesses flexibility and adaptability for further improvement and<br />application in different climatic conditions.</p> / <p>Истраживање је усмерено на повећање ефикасности и унапређење енергетских перформанси вишеспратних административних зграда у умереним климатским условима. Посебан нагласак је на постизању и одржавању прихватљивих унутрашњих микроклиматских стандарда и термичког комфора корисника. Истраживања су заснована на комплексној вишекритеријумској оптимизацији уз примену најсавременије технологије динамичке енергетске симулације. Развијена је методологија, флексибилна и прилагодљива, за вредновање и унапређење енергетских перформанси у функцији корисничког комфора, за примене и на друге сличне и новопројектоване објекте. Формулисан модел је подобан за даља унапређења и примену у различитим климатским условима.</p> / <p>Istraživanje je usmereno na povećanje efikasnosti i unapređenje energetskih performansi višespratnih administrativnih zgrada u umerenim klimatskim uslovima. Poseban naglasak je na postizanju i održavanju prihvatljivih unutrašnjih mikroklimatskih standarda i termičkog komfora korisnika. Istraživanja su zasnovana na kompleksnoj višekriterijumskoj optimizaciji uz primenu najsavremenije tehnologije dinamičke energetske simulacije. Razvijena je metodologija, fleksibilna i prilagodljiva, za vrednovanje i unapređenje energetskih performansi u funkciji korisničkog komfora, za primene i na druge slične i novoprojektovane objekte. Formulisan model je podoban za dalja unapređenja i primenu u različitim klimatskim uslovima.</p>

An overarching aim of this research was to investigate the comprehensive value of green residential buildings as seen from two perspectives: that of the developer and that of the occupant (the customer). The dissertation consists of studies presented in seven papers.  The studies conducted to investigate the developer’s perspective focused on construction cost and potential profit (papers I and VII). The customer’s perspective was examined with three approaches: the impact that energy and environment have on the decision to purchase (or rent) an apartment (paper V), willingness to pay for a green apartment (paper VI) and finally, the occupants’ satisfaction with the dwelling and indoor environment (papers II, III and IV).  The first paper examines whether increased investment costs are profitable, taking into account the reduction in operating costs. The investment viability is approached by comparing investment in conventional and green residential building, particularly passive houses, using real construction and post-occupancy conditions. The increased investment costs in energy-efficient building were also the focus of paper VII. In this paper, the aim was to study how technologies used in energy-efficient residential building construction affect the available saleable floor area and how this impacts on the profitability of the investment. Potential losses and gains of saleable floor area in energy-efficient buildings were assessed using a modelled building and analysed with the help of the average construction cost. Papers II and IV present results from a study of occupants’ satisfaction and indoor environmental qualities. Both papers aim at comparing and analysing responses from occupants living in green and conventional buildings. Paper III focuses on a similar subject, but investigates occupants’ satisfaction among all adults living in multi-family buildings in Sweden, providing a national context for the results presented in papers II and IV. The results indicate that occupants are generally satisfied with their dwellings, but indoor environment proved to have a statistically significant effect on overall satisfaction. The results in paper V indicate that energy and environmental factors have a minor impact on customers’ decision to purchase or rent an apartment. However, availability of information on building energy and environmental performance may have an effect on the likelihood of the buyers’ being interested in environmental qualities and consequently an impact on their decision. The study presented in paper VI shows that customer interest in energy and environmental factors has a significant impact on stated willingness to pay for green dwellings. The paper discusses the stated willingness to pay for low-energy buildings and buildings with an environmental certificate and attempts to assess the rationale of the stated willingness to pay for low-energy dwellings given potential energy savings. / Fokus i detta forskningsprojekt har legat på att undersöka värdet av gröna bostäder ur ett brett perspektiv, dvs både genom att studera byggherrens och de boendes (kundens) synpunkter. I avhandlingen ingår sju uppsatser. Undersökningen av byggherrens synpunkter fokuserades på kostnader och potentiella inkomster (uppsats I och VII). Kundernas åsikter undersöktes på tre olika sätt: vilken effekt energi och miljö faktorer hade på beslut att köpa eller hyra en lägenhet (uppsats V), betalningsvilja för gröna bostäder (uppsats VI) och slutligen de boendes trivsel samt nöjdhet med inomhusmiljön (uppsats II,III och IV). Den första uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka om ökningen av investeringskostnader vid byggande av gröna byggnader kan täckas av framtida energibesparingar och minskning av driftkostnad. Investeringens lönsamhet undersöktes genom att jämföra skillnader i byggkostnader mellan konventionella och gröna bostäder med skillnader i driftskostnader givet olika antaganden om energipriser och räntekrav. Huvudfokus i uppsats VII var också byggkostnader, men denna gång undersöktes hur nya tekniska lösningar påverkar boarea och lönsamhet av energieffektiva bostäder.  Genom att konstruera en modell av ett typhus analyserades potentiella ökningar i boarea med nya lösningar och hur detta påverkade lönsamheten i olika geografiska lägen (prisnivåer). Uppsatserna II och IV presenterar resultat från boendeundersökningar. Båda uppsatserna syftar till att undersöka boendes trivsel och nöjdhet med inomhusmiljö samt att testa skillnaden i svar från boende i gröna och konventionella bostäder.  Uppsats III fokuserar också på inomhusmiljön, men analysen gjordes på svaren som samlades in under Boverkets projekt BETSI och resultaten är därmed representativa för alla vuxna som bor i flerfamiljshus i Sverige. Uppsats III ger därmed en national kontext för uppsatserna II och IV. Resultaten visar att boende trivs i sina bostäder, men inomhusmiljön har en statistiks signifikanta effekt på allmän nöjdhet faktor.. Resultaten i uppsats V tyder på att energi- och miljöaspekter spelar mindre roll i beslutet att köpa eller hyra en lägenhet. Den synliga informationens tillgänglighet angående byggnadens energi- och miljöprestanda, påverkar kundens intresse för dessa faktorer och därmed indirekt hushållets beslut. Resultaten i uppsats VI pekar på att kunderna, som är intresserade av byggnaders energi och miljö prestanda, är villiga att betala mer för gröna bostäder. I uppsats 6 diskuteras betalningsvilja för låg-energi byggnader och för byggnader med miljöcertifikat samt utvärderas om den angivna betalningsviljan är rationell beslut när man tar hänsyn till nuvärdet av framtida energibesparingar. / <p>QC 20131014</p>

Accidents involving passenger trains happen regularly in India. The reasons for such accidents could be many; such as weather and flooding, faulty tracks, bridge collapse, collisions caused by signaling errors, mechanical failures, driver error, sabotage etc. The annual accident-related deaths as a percentage of the total number of passengers carried by Indian Railway may seem to be negligible, but the aim should be to achieve zero fatality as every single person killed is an irreplaceable loss to his/her family. It needs to be mentioned that in addition to fatalities for which exact numbers are not available, serious injuries and permanent disabilities caused by train accidents in India at present stand completely unaccounted for. In the absence of a large scale renovation and crash avoidance measures coupled with the propensity to increase the number of trains every year, enhancing passive safety is crucial i.e. crashworthiness and occupant safety of passenger coaches of Indian trains. In the current work, crashworthiness and occupant safety of the existing typical three-tier cabin passenger coach of Indian Railway in an event of collision accident are assessed with the aid of a finite element analysis. In the light of the published work on research in railroad equipment crashworthiness, the current work is intended to envisage the methodology to assess the Indian Railway passenger coach from the point of view of the crashworthiness and occupant safety using CAE (Computer aided engineering) based approach. It is involved with an extensive study of the structural crush behavior of an individual passenger coach car and its effect on the interaction between occupants and the coach interior. Here the structural crush behavior of a typical three-tier cabin passenger coach is evaluated for the head-on impact against a fixed and rigid barrier. The occupant response for the same scenario is also studied which can be viewed as a component of the actual occupant response due to the structural crush behavior of the passenger coach. This can give useful estimates of injury severity and fatalities that may occur in actual accidents. An FE model of the passenger coach structure was built and validated using International Railway Union (UIC) specified code OR 567-design requirements in terms of static loads constituting structural proof cases. These proof cases specify the static load values the coach body structure should withstand without any permanent deformation or failure when applied at the specified locations on the structural ends across the longitudinal axis. In addition, a favorable correlation between the simulation and actual experiment for drop impact behavior of the open section specimens, namely C-section and I-section, was obtained to validate the simulation methodology. LS-DYNA a nonlinear dynamic explicit FE solver was used to carry out all the dynamic impact simulations involved in the current work. The material modeling takes into account the strain rate effect which is essential for the material impact behavior study. The contact modeling was done using penalty contact method. The degrading effect of the buffer on the structural crush patterns which induced the undesirable global bending and jackknifing of the whole coach structure was demonstrated with the help of dynamic impact simulations of the coach structure. The quantification of occupant injury was done by occupant safety simulations using the Hybrid III 50th percentile male dummy FE model. The dummy having been designed for simulating automobile accident scenarios, its contacts had to be adapted to suit the excessive mobility conditions in the coach interior. The dummy was revalidated successfully for the head drop test, pendulum chest impact test, neck flexion and extension test and knee impact test. Impact simulations for three different speeds were performed by positioning the dummy close to the impact point. Injury criteria such as Head Injury Criterion, Chest Deceleration, Knee force level and Neck extension-flexion moments were used to estimate the injury severity level and fatality rate.

En los presentes informes se expondrán las principales piezas procesales tanto del expediente privado como público. Respecto al expediente privado, se discute la materia de desalojo por ocupación precario, si efectivamente a la demandante le corresponde la restitución del inmueble, materia litis. Puesto que existen otros procesos de prescripción adquisitiva de dominio y nulidad de acto jurídico. Por otro lado, en el expediente público se discute si hay o no infracción por idoneidad al Código de defensa y protección al Consumidor, puesto que se incumplió con la entrega del inmueble en el plazo pactado debido a que la demora fue por culpa no imputable a la parte denunciada. / These reports will expose the main procedural pieces from both the private and public files. Regarding the private file, the matter of eviction for precarious occupation is discussed, if indeed the plaintiff is entitled to the restitution of the property, litis matter. Since there are other processes of acquisitive prescription of domain and nullity of legal act. On the other hand, in the public file it is discussed whether or not there is an infringement due to the suitability of the Consumer Protection and Defense Code, since the delivery of the property was breached within the agreed period because the delay was due to fault not attributable to the denounced party. / Trabajo de suficiencia profesional

Collision avoidance systems have become an integrated part of modern vehicles and aim to avoid accidents or mitigate the crash severity for the occupant. For example, the autonomous emergency braking system influences the pre-crash state of the occupant in sitting posture, stress state, or velocity. The occupant might try to retain its posture by activating muscles, which induce muscle bracing and could counteract the movement of the occupant in the pre-crash phase.  Therefore, it is essential to study the influence of active musculature on occupant response in pre-crash and crash events. A finite element human body model (HBM) with and without closed-loop muscle activation control was used to simulate the occupant response during those events. Comparing the HBM responses &amp; head kinematics reveal an influence of muscle bracing in the evasive braking manoeuvre. Simulating the pre-crash and in-crash phase in two stages can provide multiple benefits. However, the correlation between a single-stage simulation (baseline) and a two-stage simulation needs to be investigated. The baseline simulation uses an active HBM to model an occupant during an evasive braking manoeuvre and the muscles are deactivated when entering the frontal impact phase. The parameters of the final pre-crash state, which are needed to mimic the baseline’s response when transitioning from the pre-crash to the in-crash event are investigated in this study. For that reason, sitting position, stress state and velocity are transferred respectively to the initial passive in-crash HBM state. The simulations enabled the comparison of occupant response and calculation of cross-correlation. Each retainment strategy gave a good cross-correlation with the baseline simulation. / Kollisionsundvikande system har blivit en viktig del i moderna fordon där syftet är att undvika olyckor samt att minska allvarhetsgraden av olyckor för de åkande. Ett exempel är nödbromssystem som kan påverka den åkandes initiala tillstånd direkt före en krock som, till exempel, sittposition, spänningstillstånd, eller initial hastighet inför krock. Den åkande kan försöka att bibehålla sin hållning genom att aktivera sina muskler vilket påverkar rörelsen av dess kropp under för-krocks fasen. Det är därför viktigt att studera hur aktiva muskler påverkar rörelsen av kroppen hos den åkande under både före krocksfasen och själva krockfasen. En finit element humanmodell (HBM) med och utan reglerad muskelaktivitet används för att prediktera responsen hos den åkande i båda faserna. En jämförelse mellan simuleringarna visar att aktiva muskler kan påverka åkandekinematiken under bromsningsförloppet. Att simulera fasen före krock och fasen under krock i två steg kan medföra flera fördelar. Korrelationen mellan en enkelstegssimulering (originalsimulering) och en tvåstegssimulering måste dock studeras. Som originalsimulering används en aktiv HBM för att modellera den åkande under för-krocksfasen där den reglerade muskelaktiviteten inaktiveras under krockfasen. I denna studie undersöks den åkandes initiala tillstånd före krocken som behövs för att efterlikna originalsimulerings respons vid övergången från för-krocksfasen till krockfasen. Av den anledningen mappas det passiva HBM-tillståndet till det slutliga tillståndet av före krocksfasen för sittposition, spänningstillstånd respektive hastighet. Simuleringarna möjliggjorde en jämförelse av åkande respons och beräkning av korskorrelation. Varje mappningsstrategi gav en bra korskorrelation med originalsimuleringen.

The goal of this dissertation is to demonstrate that data from a remotely located building can be utilized for energy modeling of a similar type of building and to demonstrate how to use this remote data without physically moving the data from one server to another using Virtual Information Fabric Infrastructure (VIFI). In order to achieve this goal, firstly an EnergyPlus model was created for Greek Life Center, a campus building located at University of North Texas campus at Denton in Texas, USA. Three thermal comfort models of Fanger model, Pierce two-node model and KSU two-node model were compared in order to find which one of these three models is most accurate to predict occupant thermal comfort. This study shows that Fanger's model is most accurate in predicting thermal comfort. Secondly, an experimental data pertaining to lighting usage and occupancy in a single-occupancy office from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has been implemented in order to perform energy analysis of Greek Life Center assuming that occupants in this building's offices behave similarly as occupants in CMU. Thirdly, different data types, data formats and data sources were identified which are required in order to develop a city-scale urban building energy model (CS-UBEM). Two workflows were created, one for an individual scale building energy model and another one for CS-UBEM. A new innovative infrastructure called as Virtual Information Fabric Infrastructure (VIFI) has been introduced in this dissertation. The workflows proposed in this study will demonstrate in the future work that by using VIFI infrastructure to develop building energy models there is a potential of using data for remote servers without actually moving the data. It has been successfully demonstrated in this dissertation that data located at remote location can be used credibly to predict energy consumption of a newly built building. When the remote experimental data of both lighting and occupancy are implemented, 4.57% energy savings was achieved in the Greek Life Center energy model.