Level of detail algorithms have widely been implemented in architectural VR walkthroughs and video games, but have not had widespread use in VR terrain visualization systems. This thesis explains a set of optimizations to allow most current level of detail algorithms run in the types of multiple display systems used in VR. It improves both the visual quality of the system through use of graphics hardware acceleration, and improves the framerate and running time through modifications to the computations that drive the algorithms. Using ROAM as a testbed, results show improvements between 10% and 100% on varying machines.

The aim of this final thesis is to make it easier for the customer of a new designed house to get a picture of what the house will look like inside before it has been built. A method, which can be applied by any construction company who likes to visualize there buildings, has been designed and tested. One works after a regular design planning which is transformed into a three dimensional model of the house. In a rendering program, materials and surfaces are chosen for the model and then a picture of the finished product is made. The programs used for this work are ADT 2006 and VIZ Render. To evaluate the use of this method I’ve chosen to cooperate with LB-Hus which is a housing company that is specialized in building detached houses. I applied the method on one of their new houses and together with their salesman we evaluated the result. The pictures fills its aim and makes it easier for the customer. The method is something LB-Hus could think of using in the future.

<p>The aim of this final thesis is to make it easier for the customer of a new designed house to get a picture of what the house will look like inside before it has been built.</p><p>A method, which can be applied by any construction company who likes to visualize there buildings, has been designed and tested. One works after a regular design planning which is transformed into a three dimensional model of the house. In a rendering program, materials and surfaces are chosen for the model and then a picture of the finished product is made. The programs used for this work are ADT 2006 and VIZ Render.</p><p>To evaluate the use of this method I’ve chosen to cooperate with LB-Hus which is a housing company that is specialized in building detached houses. I applied the method on one of their new houses and together with their salesman we evaluated the result.</p><p>The pictures fills its aim and makes it easier for the customer. The method is something LB-Hus could think of using in the future.</p>

Since the introduction of Portland cement in the early nineteenth century the number of buildings constructed from concrete or using cement mortars and renders has grown exponentially, and cement is one of the most common building materials in use today. Consequently a significant proportion of the built heritage contains cementitious materials. The relative youth of these buildings means that less research has been undertaken to understand how and why they deteriorate than for traditional buildings, and that the development of appropriate conservation methods and techniques is less advanced. The primary aim of this research was to understand the causes and mechanisms of some of the types of deterioration commonly found in historic concrete and cement buildings and structures, with reference to the Second World War reinforced concrete and cement-rendered buildings at East Fortune airfield in East Lothian, Scotland. Additional aims were to investigate the efficacy of the building repairs and maintenance regimes undertaken to date, and to make recommendations for the future conservation of the buildings. East Fortune airfield contains a number of cement-rendered brick masonry buildings and a reinforced concrete air raid shelter. The initial visual survey identified several types of deterioration, from which the blistering and flaking of the render; the cracking and delamination of the render; and the spalling of the concrete in the air raid shelter were selected for further research. The research included time lapse photography, non-destructive testing, environmental monitoring and the physical, chemical and petrographic characterisation of the building materials. Hypotheses regarding the causes of deterioration were tested in the laboratory, for example with linear variable displacement transducer measurements, and modelled using crack propagation theories and models for water transport through porous media. It is demonstrated that the blistering and flaking of the render is caused by shale aggregate particles, which undergo sufficient expansion during freeze-thaw cycles to crack the surrounding render. This phenomenon is termed ‘pop-outs’ in the concrete literature. The more catastrophic cracking and delamination of the renders is also due to freeze-thaw cycling, which is shown to cause significant damage provided the moisture content of the render is above a certain threshold level. This type of deterioration has occurred at an accelerated rate for some of the modern render repairs, due to an inadequate understanding of the properties of the original and repair materials. In particular, the properties of the bricks are critical to the performance of the cement renders, and it is found that the sorptivity of historic bricks may vary considerably depending upon the orientation of the brick. Finally, the diagnosis for the air raid shelter is that the corrosion of the steel reinforcements is caused by high levels of chlorides present within the raw materials used to make the pre-cast concrete sections. The results of the investigations are used to suggest building conservation solutions for this particular site. Furthermore, since the deterioration mechanisms investigated are common for historic cement and concrete, the findings are relevant to many other sites. The over-arching methodology used to investigate the deterioration at the site and the methodologies developed to test particular hypotheses are also applicable for other investigations of historic building materials. There is much about this research that is innovative and new. The work on render cracking compares the results of dilation tests on cementitious and ceramic materials, which has not been done previously, and the pop-outs diagnosed in the work on render flaking have rarely, if ever, been reported for cement renders. The modelling work undertaken to quantify the stresses produced by the pop-outs and to explain the inclined crack formation patterns is entirely original. The use of petrography to diagnose causes of render failure is described in the literature, but this is one of very few case studies to be written up, and the work on the air raid shelter constitutes the only formal investigation of this type of Stanton shelter.

O desempenho final das argamassas depende das matérias-primas e de suas proporções na formulação, pois estas determinam o comportamento do material na etapa de aplicação e a microestrutura final do material endurecido. Entre as patologias de revestimentos, a falha de aderência é um dos fenômenos mais freqüentes, sendo originada pela incompatibilidade entre o comportamento reológico da argamassa e a energia de lançamento utilizada, resultando em defeitos na interface argamassa substrato. A adequação das características reológicas das argamassas às solicitações envolvidas na aplicação fornece condições de processamento mais favoráveis para a obtenção das máximas propriedades finais do revestimento. Assim, o objetivo do trabalho é desenvolver critérios de formulação, baseados nas características das matérias-primas, nos modelos de empacotamento de partículas e nos comportamentos reológicos, de modo a obter um método de formulação de argamassas. O método de squeeze-flow foi desenvolvido com sucesso para avaliação reológica de argamassas, sendo as principais variáveis experimentais foram estudadas, assim como o efeito do tipo de mistura no comportamento reológico. Procedimento para quantificação da segregação pasta-agregado foi criado, tendo em vista o intenso efeito que este fenômeno exerce sobre o comportamento reológico em squeeze-flow, especialmente em baixas velocidades. Foi ainda comprovado que o squeeze-flow tem boa relação com a percepção do pedreiro, principalmente, nas etapas de lançamento e aperto. Diversas argamassas nacionais e européias foram caracterizadas, resultando em um mapeamento das características de formulação, do comportamento reológico e das propriedades no estado endurecido. Através da aplicação de conceitos de empacotamento e distância de separação de partículas, foi verificado que a otimização do empacotamento de agregados permite um melhor aproveitamento da pasta para promover argamassas com comportamento reológico mais adequado à aplicação ou com menor consumo de finos e água. As correlações estabelecidas entre as características no estado fluido e as propriedades no estado endurecido permitem prever o comportamento das propriedades no estado endurecido com boa confiabilidade. Por fim, são descritas diretrizes sistemáticas para a formulação de argamassas considerando requisitos de desempenho tanto no estado fresco quanto no endurecido. / The in-use performance of rendering mortars depends on the raw materials features and their content in the formulation, since they have major influence on the material behavior during emplacement, as well as, on its final properties. Adherence failure is one of the most frequent problems of this class of building materials, caused by the incompatibility between rheological behavior and the application process, generating mortar/substrate interface flaws. A rheological behavior more suitable to the application demands, provides appropriate conditions to obtain maximum final rendering properties. Therefore, the main goal of this work is to develop mix-design parameters based on raw materials features, particle packing models and rheological behavior, in order to create a mix-design method for mortars. Squeeze-flow technique was successfully adapted for the rheological evaluation of rendering mortars, and the most important experimental parameters were studied. The method is sensitive enough to measure rheological changes as a function of the mixing process applied. Considering that phase segregation plays an important role on the rheological behavior of concentrated suspensions especially at low speeds, a method was developed to measure paste-aggregate segregation. It was also established that the squeeze-flow agrees well with the workers perception during manual emplacement. Several Brazilian and European products were evaluated, and significant differences were determined on the formulation features, rheological behavior and hardened properties. Using models of particle packing and particle distance, it was verified that optimized packing of aggregates enhances rheological behavior and can also allow the reduction of water and fine particles consumption. The experimental relationships established between fresh characteristics, rheological behavior and final properties can be used to predict hardened features and properties with fair confidence. Lastly, mix-design suggestions are made considering both fresh and hardened performance.

Today, production companies are being asked to create scenes that are almost impossible to render. To create these impossible shots with speed and quality, the industry has created render passes. In this research project, the aim is to learn and understand the fastest and most efficient methods to create 3D Medical Sciences Visualization. A deeper understanding of Render Passes using Nuke compositing software in an industry based pipeline will answer the above statement. This project was developed in collaboration with the Uppsala Biomedical Center (BMC) and the Special Effects company Oddville. The final animation will also be used for BMC medical conferences. The results revealed that the render passes did allowed for the animation in postproduction and also saved a great deal of time.

Rendering takes time, especially without access to powerful hardware. Is there any way to reduce the time of rendering? With the help of compositing reducing the time of renders is very much possible, using a range of alternative methods. A total of three different approaches will be tested in order to save time, as well as trying to maintain quality as close to a render straight from a 3D application as possible. Projections using cards and geometry as well as deep data will be used in an attempt to find the most efficient and useful way of saving time. / Rendering tar tid, speciellt utan tillgång till kraftfull hårdvara. Finns det något sätt att dra ner på tiden en rendering tar? Med hjälp av compositing är det absolut möjligt att sänka tiderna för en rendering genom en rad alternativa metoder. Totalt kommer tre olika metoder att testas för att spara in tid, men även för att försöka komma så nära kvalitén av en bild renderad direkt från en 3D-appliaktion som möjligt. Projektioner på plan och geometri och användandet av deep-data kommer användas i ett försök att hitta det mest effektiva och användbara tillvägagångssättet att spara tid.

O desempenho final das argamassas depende das matérias-primas e de suas proporções na formulação, pois estas determinam o comportamento do material na etapa de aplicação e a microestrutura final do material endurecido. Entre as patologias de revestimentos, a falha de aderência é um dos fenômenos mais freqüentes, sendo originada pela incompatibilidade entre o comportamento reológico da argamassa e a energia de lançamento utilizada, resultando em defeitos na interface argamassa substrato. A adequação das características reológicas das argamassas às solicitações envolvidas na aplicação fornece condições de processamento mais favoráveis para a obtenção das máximas propriedades finais do revestimento. Assim, o objetivo do trabalho é desenvolver critérios de formulação, baseados nas características das matérias-primas, nos modelos de empacotamento de partículas e nos comportamentos reológicos, de modo a obter um método de formulação de argamassas. O método de squeeze-flow foi desenvolvido com sucesso para avaliação reológica de argamassas, sendo as principais variáveis experimentais foram estudadas, assim como o efeito do tipo de mistura no comportamento reológico. Procedimento para quantificação da segregação pasta-agregado foi criado, tendo em vista o intenso efeito que este fenômeno exerce sobre o comportamento reológico em squeeze-flow, especialmente em baixas velocidades. Foi ainda comprovado que o squeeze-flow tem boa relação com a percepção do pedreiro, principalmente, nas etapas de lançamento e aperto. Diversas argamassas nacionais e européias foram caracterizadas, resultando em um mapeamento das características de formulação, do comportamento reológico e das propriedades no estado endurecido. Através da aplicação de conceitos de empacotamento e distância de separação de partículas, foi verificado que a otimização do empacotamento de agregados permite um melhor aproveitamento da pasta para promover argamassas com comportamento reológico mais adequado à aplicação ou com menor consumo de finos e água. As correlações estabelecidas entre as características no estado fluido e as propriedades no estado endurecido permitem prever o comportamento das propriedades no estado endurecido com boa confiabilidade. Por fim, são descritas diretrizes sistemáticas para a formulação de argamassas considerando requisitos de desempenho tanto no estado fresco quanto no endurecido. / The in-use performance of rendering mortars depends on the raw materials features and their content in the formulation, since they have major influence on the material behavior during emplacement, as well as, on its final properties. Adherence failure is one of the most frequent problems of this class of building materials, caused by the incompatibility between rheological behavior and the application process, generating mortar/substrate interface flaws. A rheological behavior more suitable to the application demands, provides appropriate conditions to obtain maximum final rendering properties. Therefore, the main goal of this work is to develop mix-design parameters based on raw materials features, particle packing models and rheological behavior, in order to create a mix-design method for mortars. Squeeze-flow technique was successfully adapted for the rheological evaluation of rendering mortars, and the most important experimental parameters were studied. The method is sensitive enough to measure rheological changes as a function of the mixing process applied. Considering that phase segregation plays an important role on the rheological behavior of concentrated suspensions especially at low speeds, a method was developed to measure paste-aggregate segregation. It was also established that the squeeze-flow agrees well with the workers perception during manual emplacement. Several Brazilian and European products were evaluated, and significant differences were determined on the formulation features, rheological behavior and hardened properties. Using models of particle packing and particle distance, it was verified that optimized packing of aggregates enhances rheological behavior and can also allow the reduction of water and fine particles consumption. The experimental relationships established between fresh characteristics, rheological behavior and final properties can be used to predict hardened features and properties with fair confidence. Lastly, mix-design suggestions are made considering both fresh and hardened performance.

Before an IED is sent to a laboratory for analysis, it needs to be rendered safe if it did not already initiate. Render safe procedures (RSPs) include utilizing a percussion-actuated non-electric (PAN) disrupter or a mineral water bottle disrupter. Each disrupter utilizes explosives to render the device safe by breaking open the container or disrupting the fuzing system. However, the same explosives used in the RSP are also used by criminals in IED construction. As such, the explosives used in the RSP can cause problems with the interpretation of the results from forensic analysis of the IED fragments. Compounds of analytical interest in residue include nitroglycerin (NG), diphenylamine (DPA), ethyl centralite (EC), methyl centralite (MC), and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). Instrumentation used in the analysis of the residues included a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS), a liquid chromatograph/mass spectrometer (LC/MS), and a gas chromatograph with an electron capture detector (GC/ECD). The PAN disrupter smokeless powder contained NG, DPA, and EC while the bulk detonation cord contained PETN. Only DPA decomposed after being burned. No residue was detected on the PVC pipes while residue was detected on the steel pipes and backpack mock IEDs. Overall, finding such residue in casework should not rule out the possibility that an individual used a particular explosive in the construction of the IED, but examiners should be aware of residues left by disrupters especially if the device initiates during the RSP.

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