Using innovative materials or devices in techniques for strengthening or repair of RC concrete members may provide interesting alternatives for structural engineers. Laboratory tests were conducted on full scale reinforced concrete columns and a masonry wall that suffered severe damage. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer - CFRP sheets and anchors were used to improve shear capacity or ductility elements. CFRP jacket were installed on column hinge regions while diagonal ties (tension braces) were used on the masonry wall. Mechanical splices were used in columns where concrete crushed and bars buckled by replacing the buckled bars and providing continuity to the longitudinal reinforcement. It was found that performance of the retrofitted members was comparable to that using conventional techniques and the performance was generally better than certain “fast” retrofit procedures reported in the literature. The choice of technique depends on the degree of damage, the cost of replacement, and performance required. Having the results of cyclic load tests of rehabilitated concrete members, envelope or backbone curves were obtained following the ASCE41-07 and proposed ASCE41-13 procedures. The backbone curves were used to develop behavioral models that can be used in the analysis and design of those types of concrete members and retrofit procedures. The inclusion of the behavioral models into current Performance Based Seismic Design procedures for strengthening of existing or repaired damaged buildings is proposed. / text

A large inventory of low rise masonry buildings in Canada and elsewhere in the world were built using unreinforced or partially reinforced load bearing wall. The majority of existing masonry structures is deficient in resisting seismic force demands specified in current building codes. Therefore, they pose significant risk to life safety and economic wellbeing of any major metropolitan centre. Because it is not economically feasible to replace the existing substandard buildings with new and improved structures, seismic retrofitting remains to be an economically viable option. The effectiveness of surface bonded carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets in retrofitting low-rise load bearing masonry walls was investigated in the current research project. The retrofit technique included the enhancements in wall capacity in shear and flexure, as well as anchoring the walls to the supporting elements through appropriate anchorage systems. Both FRP fan type anchors and steel sheet anchors were investigated for elastic and inelastic wall response. One partially reinforced masonry (PRM) wall and one unreinforced masonry (URM) wall were built, instrumented and tested under simulated seismic loading to develop the retrofit technique. The walls were retrofitted with CFRP sheets applied only on one side to represent a frequently encountered constraint in practice. FRP fan anchors and stainless steel sheet anchors were used to connect the vertical FRP sheets to the wall foundation. The walls were tested under constant gravity load and incrementally increasing in-plane deformation reversals. The lateral load capacities of both walls were enhanced significantly. The steel sheet anchors also resulted in some ductility. In addition, some small-scale tests were performed to select appropriate anchor materials. It was concluded that ductile stainless steel sheet anchors would be the best option for brittle URM walls. Analytical research was conducted to assess the applicability of truss analogy to retrofitted walls. An analytical model was developed and load displacement relationships were generated for the two walls that were retrofitted. The analytical results were compared with those obtained experimentally, indicating good agreement in force resistance for use as a design tool.

A large portion of the existing building stock in North America is comprised of post-World War II high-rise apartment buildings, particularly in the Greater Golden Horseshoe in Ontario. They are home to a large portion of the Canadian population. These buildings are nearly 50 years old and reaching the end of their useful lifespan. Significant deterioration has lead to life safety concerns, poor standards of living, and aesthetic degradation. They also consume a significant amount of energy resulting in contributing to Canada’s high per capita greenhouse gas emissions. This thesis investigates the impact of various retrofit strategies on the energy consumption, durability, and occupant comfort of the towers. The building enclosure is the primary focus. The impacts were analyzed using three approaches. Whole building energy consumption was simulated by adapting a spreadsheet based Building Energy and Loads Analysis (BELA) model, originally intended for office buildings. Heat flow and temperatures across the enclosures were modeled using a two-dimensional finite element model (Therm 5.2). A single, theoretical building dubbed the, “Archetype”, was developed to define the characteristics of a “typical” tower using details extracted from four sets of drawings for towers built in Toronto during the late 1960s. Various quantities and configurations of thermal insulation were added to the Archetype and the resulting effective thermal resistances were modeled. Adding insulation to the interior significantly reduces the effectiveness of any added thermal resistance. Insulating on the exterior allows the insulation around the balconies to reach 80% of its rated value, even without insulating the balconies. Energy efficiency measures (EEMs) including retrofitting the walls, windows, appliances, or HVAC equipment were simulated and it was found that each on its own did not have a major impact on annual energy consumption. Packages of EEMs were created and simulated. It was found that a basic and high-performance whole building retrofit packages would save approximately 40% and 55% of the annual energy consumption, respectively, based on the Archetype. An analysis and discussion of the enclosure retrofit impacts on freeze-thaw potential, interior surface and interstitial condensation, occupants’ thermal comfort, and passive thermal comfort was completed. An interior versus exterior enclosure retrofit comparison summary illustrated that an exterior enclosure retrofit has significant benefits relative to an interior retrofit including ease of construction, greater durability, and improved comfort. The difference in annual energy reduction between an interior and exterior enclosure retrofit was small.

Spurred by changing retail and development patterns, as well as continuous suburban growth, greyfield sites can be found at the heart of most postwar suburbs in North American municipalities. Ranging in definition, greyfields are best described as an “underused, economically obsolete, retail tract located in an inner ring suburb that requires significant public and private involvement to curtail decline” (Feronti, 2003, p.11). However, tied to demographic trends and increased municipal urbanization, these vacated retail sites are positioned well for redevelopment. Yet, the redevelopment process of these sites is fraught with impeding and facilitating factors that can have significant implications for redevelopment options and viability. As such, research questions considered were: Do municipalities address greyfield challenges and opportunities? What factors impede and facilitate greyfield redevelopment? This thesis also asks these questions within the context of the City of Edmonton’s current policy and existing built form, and asked: How should greyfields be planned in the City of Edmonton? This thesis attempts to answer these questions through a review and analysis of existing literature, case studies (Belmar in Lakewood, Colorado and Century Park in Edmonton, Alberta) and through primary research conducted with key stakeholders. The research found that municipalities were largely unacquainted with the challenges and opportunities of greyfield redevelopment. Where support guidelines did exist, they were largely aspirational and lacked consideration for the unique impeding and facilitating factors of greyfield redevelopment. It was found that impeding factors to greyfield redevelopment ranged from administrative hurdles fraught with inexperience in greyfield redevelopment, to financial and land economic constraints. Facilitating factors were found in collaborative stakeholder consultation, municipal and administrative leadership, and a range of supportive fiscal mechanisms. Lastly, ten recommendations to facilitate greyfield redevelop within the City of Edmonton were discussed.

This thesis uses a case study of the Community Home Energy Retrofit Project (CHERP) and it analyzes the larger statewide effort in California to increase energy efficiency in existing residential buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CHERP’s primary strategy is to embed itself into a community, educate residents on the multiple benefits of energy efficiency, and inspire them to take energy-saving actions in their own homes. It then builds its own community by connecting like-minded individuals together and provides an opportunity for them to exercise their political agency. This thesis analyzes CHERP’s effort in the context of the political, social, and economic climate of California. It identifies three obstacles for widespread energy efficiency adoption: one, CHERP’s lack of funding to support permanent staff and pay for collateral materials; two, low access to energy efficiency measures for low-income households and renters; and three, a lack of high quality home performance contractors that perform energy efficiency upgrades utilizing a whole-house energy systems approach. The thesis concludes with five recommendations to overcome these issues.

Thermal improvement of traditional and historic buildings is going to play a crucial role in the achievement of established carbon emission targets. The suitable retrofit options for traditional buildings are, however, very limited and their long term performance is still uncertain. Evaluation of risks, prior to any alteration of building physics, is critical to avoid future damage to the fabric or occupants’ health. Moisture dynamics in building envelopes are affected by the enclosure’s geometry, materials properties and external and internal boundary conditions. Since the internal boundary is heavily influenced by users, understanding their behaviour is essential to predict the outcome of energy retrofit measures more accurately. The effect of user behaviour on energy demand has been extensively investigated; however, its impact on the hygrothermal performance of the envelopes has barely been explored. This research approached the connection between users and buildings from a new angle looking at the effect that user behaviour has on moisture dynamics of buildings’ envelopes after the retrofit. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to develop a holistic evaluation of the question. Firstly, factors influencing the adoption of energy efficiency measures in traditional buildings were explored by means of semi-structured interviews with private owners and project managers. Subsequently, a multi-case study including interviews with occupants and monitoring of environmental conditions was conducted. Data collected at this stage was used to explore users’ daily practices of comfort and to characterise the internal climate of traditional dwellings. Lastly, users’ impact was quantified using Heat, Air and Moisture (HAM) numerical simulation. This allowed for the evaluation of the hygrothermal performance of walls under different internal climate scenarios. Combined results of interviews, environmental monitoring and simulation showed that internal climate can compromise envelope performance after the retrofit and highlighted the need to consider users in the decision making process. Ultimately, the results of this research will help to increase awareness about the potential impact of user behaviour and provide recommendations to decision makers involved in the energy retrofit of traditional structures.

This thesis investigates the role of co-design in the design and development of services that help householders to make decisions to make their homes more energy efficient by installing energy saving measures. The key issues facing co-design research are (1) the lack of understanding of how to increase and assess its impact and effectiveness, and (2) the provision of empirical evidence of the benefits associated with it. This thesis identifies and reviews different theoretical approaches to help provide evidence of the benefits associated with co-design (Chapter 2), adopting, applying and testing them throughout the empirical work. Research methods are also discussed alongside the particular challenges facing co-design research (Chapter 3). An exploratory study involving co-design practitioners (Chapter 4) confirmed what was shown to be lacking in the co-design literature, concluding with a need to focus on assessing the impact and effectiveness of co-design processes both theoretically and practically. A mixed methods study follows (Chapter 5) that took a service design perspective to identify how co-design could be applied to the design of energy advice and information, to explore householders individual decisions in detail, and to engage with householders to aid their understanding of the complex and intangible topic of energy . Chapters 6 and 7 then describe how co-design was applied to energy-related retrofit: firstly assessing the impact of co-design on householder s quality judgements of personalised information-based energy advice reports (i.e. the resulting designs from the co-design process), and secondly focusing on impact of the process aspect of co-design (i.e. what goes on ) on householders energy-related retrofit intentions, decisions and behaviours (i.e. the outcomes). Evidence of the benefits associated with co-design is provided including impact on the quality of resulting designs, and the role of co-design in enabling detailed understanding of peoples lived experiences and circumstances. The limitations of the particular analysis approach taken are then reported. The final study (Chapter 8) co-designs future energy-related service propositions with householders, building and energy technologists and user centred designers, highlighting the potential roles for smart energy data . The study concludes that immersing future end users into complex problem spaces is useful for co-designing future service propositions, and that it is beneficial to introduce wider stakeholders to develop concepts further. In understanding the outcomes of these studies, this thesis discusses (Chapter 9) the application of co-design to the energy-related retrofit domain, focusing in particular on (1) the implications of the approach taken to assessing the impact and effectiveness of co-design processes, (2) the benefits and drawbacks of incorporating personalised energy information in co-design activities, and (3) the limitations of integrating measures of impact and effectiveness into collaborative activities. Recommendations for the effective application of co-design are also presented. In conclusion, specific contributions and avenues for further work are highlighted (Chapter 10).

xiv, 92 p. : ill. (some col.) / Passive House is a voluntary, performance-based energy standard for buildings. Passive Houses use on average 90% less energy for space conditioning than code-designed houses; Passive House therefore offers an ambitious performance target for home energy retrofits. Retrofits built to the Passive House standard in Europe have demonstrated a high level of energy performance. In the U.S., few Passive House retrofits exist to date; for this reason, design and cost information for such retrofits is lacking. This study establishes an exemplar through designing the Passive House retrofit of an older home in Eugene, Oregon. The retrofit's cost-effectiveness was examined by comparing projected "business as usual" (BAU) life cycle costs to those associated with retrofit. While the BAU scenario resulted in the lowest cost over a 30-year life cycle, the difference is relatively small; minor adjustments to key variables make the retrofit financially viable. / Committee in charge: Dr. Alison G. Kwok, Chairperson; Peter Keyes, Member; Jan Fillinger, Member

abstract: Economic and environmental concerns necessitate the preference for retrofits over new construction in manufacturing facilities for incorporating modern technology, expanding production, becoming more energy-efficient and improving operational efficiency. Despite the technical and functional challenges in retrofits, the expectation from the project team is to; reduce costs, ensure the time to market and maintain a high standard for quality and safety. Thus, the construction supply chain faces increasing pressure to improve performance by ensuring better labor productivity, among other factors, for efficiency gain. Building Information Modeling (BIM) & off-site prefabrication are determined as effective management & production methods to meet these goals. However, there are limited studies assessing their impact on labor productivity within the constraints of a retrofit environment. This study fills the gap by exploring the impact of BIM on labor productivity (metric) in retrofits (context). BIM use for process tool installation at a semiconductor manufacturing facility serves as an ideal environment for practical observations. Direct site observations indicate a positive correlation between disruptions in the workflow attributed to an immature use of BIM, waste due to rework and high non-value added time at the labor work face. Root-cause analysis traces the origins of the said disruptions to decision-factors that are critical for the planning, management and implementation of BIM. Analysis shows that stakeholders involved in decision-making during BIM planning, management and implementation identify BIM-value based on their immediate utility for BIM-use instead of the utility for the customers of the process. This differing value-system manifests in the form of unreliable and inaccurate information at the labor work face. Grounding the analysis in theory and observations, the author hypothesizes that stakeholders of a construction project value BIM and BIM-aspects (i.e. geometrical information, descriptive information and workflows) differently and the accuracy of geometrical information is critical for improving labor productivity when using prefabrication in retrofit construction. In conclusion, this research presents a BIM-value framework, associating stakeholders with their relative value for BIM, the decision-factors for the planning, management and implementation of BIM and the potential impact of those decisions on labor productivity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Construction 2015

abstract: The semiconductor manufacturing business model provides unique challenges for the design and construction of supporting fabrication facilities. To accommodate the latest semiconductor processes and technologies, manufacturing facilities are constantly re-tooled and upgraded. Common to this sector of construction is the retrofit project environment. This type of construction project introduces a multitude of existing conditions constraints and functions entirely differently than traditional new-build projects. This facility conversion process is further constrained by owner needs for continuous manufacturing operations and a compressed design/construction schedule to meet first-to-market milestones. To better control the variables within this project environment, Building Information Modeling (BIM) workflows are being explored and introduced into this project typology. The construction supply-chain has also increased their focus on offsite construction techniques to prefabricate components in a controlled environment. The goal is to overlap construction timelines and improve the productivity of workers to meet the increasingly demanding schedules and to reduce on-site congestion. Limited studies exist with regards to the manufacturing retrofit construction environment, particularly when focusing on the effectiveness of BIM and prefabrication workflows. This study fills the gap by studying labor time utilization rates for Building Information Modeling workflows for prefabrication of MEP (mechanical/electrical/plumbing) and process piping equipment in a retrofit construction environment. A semiconductor manufacturing facility serves as a case-study for this research in which the current state process for utilizing BIM for prefabrication is mapped and analyzed. Labor time utilization is studied through direct observation in relation to the current state modeling process. Qualitative analysis of workflows and quantitative analysis of labor time utilization rates provide workflow interventions which are implemented and compared against the current state modeling process. This research utilizes a mixed-method approach to explore the hypothesis that reliable/trusted geometry is the most important component for successful implementation of a BIM for prefabrication workflow in a retrofit environment. The end product of this research is the development of a prefaBIM framework for the introduction of a dynamic modeling process for retrofit prefabrication which forms the basis for a model-based delivery system for retrofit prefabrication. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Construction 2016