This study aims to design and implement a domain-specific computer programming language: the Building Environment Rule and Analysis (BERA) Language. As a result of the growing area of Building Information Modeling (BIM), there has been a need to develop highly customized domain-specific programming languages for handling issues in building models in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. The BERA Language attempts to deal with building information models in an intuitive way in order to define and analyze rules in design stages. The application of the BERA Language aims to provide efficiency in defining, analyzing and checking rules. Specific example applications implemented in this dissertation are on the evaluation of two key aspects: building circulation and spatial programming. The objective of this study is to accomplish an effectiveness and ease of use without precise knowledge of general-purpose languages that are conventionally used in BIM software development. To achieve the goal, this study proposes an abstraction of the universe of discourse - it is the BERA Object Model (BOM). It is a human-centered abstraction of complex state of building models rather than the computation-oriented abstraction. By using BOM, users can enjoy the ease of use and portability of BIM data, rather than complex and platform-dependent data structures. This study also has reviewed and demonstrated its potential for extensibility of BOM. Not only its lateral extensions such as structural building elements, but also the vertical extensions such as additional properties for existing BOM objects are good examples. In current BERA Language Tool, many computed and derived properties/relations have been proposed and implemented, as well as some basic data directly from the given building model. Target users of the BERA Language are domain experts such as architects, designers, reviewers, owners, managers, students, etc., rather than BIM software developers. It means that the people who are interested in the building environment rule and analysis are the potential users. The BERA Language Tool comprises many libraries to alleviate common but unnecessary problems and limitations that are encountered when users attempt to analyze and evaluate building models using commercially available tools. Combined with other libraries which populate rich and domain-specific datasets for certain purposes, the BERA Language will be fairly versatile to define rules and analyze various building environmental conditions.

<p dir="ltr">The modern world faces many challenges related to sustainability, including the ability to make high-level decisions using a sustainability-oriented framework, a matter of increasing importance to the United States military with respect to energetic materials (EMs). Although a few pieces - process flowsheet optimization, life cycle assessment (LCA) studies, and the use of optimization tools to identify an option - have been studied and utilized, there exists no systematic approach that combines all these pieces to create a framework that allows for holistic decision making. This is especially true with EMs, other key critical materials, and new methods of manufacture. An interconnected framework for LCA-based decision making is developed and a tool based on this framework created for use with novel materials. The interconnected framework and tool are utilized in two case studies related to the manufacture of RDX- a lab-scale, batch-mode configuration and a simplified continuous-mode configuration, to determine the optimal reaction temperature.</p>

This research, done as part of the mechanical engineering program at Linnaeus University in partnership with Rottne Industri AB, aims to improve safety in forest industri. It focuses on designing a user-friendly emergency exit system for harvester cabins. Driven by strict safety rules and societal expectations, the goal is to craft an exit that allows quick evacuation during emergencies and fits well with forest machinery safety standards.

The main goal of this thesis is to propose an evaluation method for visual interface design and more specifically for website design. The proposed visual design evaluation method is an adaptation of Preference Mapping (PM) techniques. It is based on overall preference ratings after multiple comparisons of alternative designs and on various multivariate statistical techniques for the analysis, visualization and interpretation of the resulting data. The suitability of the approach for visual interface design evaluation has been explored in four case studies involving overall 149 participants judging 51 websites. In each case study a different website domain was explored in order to examine whether the importance of certain design characteristics is context specific. Heterogeneity in preferences and perceptions was also studied showing that average construct scores are only representative for subsections of the participant sample. In order to aid the preference interpretation process additional data about study websites have been collected from three distinct sources: a) Subjective construct ratings provided by the participants after preference evaluation b) Descriptive attribute ratings obtained from trained expert panel on the same websites c) Objective measures of visual characteristics of the websites In each case study the potential of these types of measurements to explain preference variance has been investigated individually and in combination. The results showed that depending on the characteristics of each case study varying combinations of these types of data had the best explanatory power. A variety of methods (e.g. Internal and External PM) and statistical techniques (e.g. Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Generalized Procrustes Analysis (GPA) and Partial Least Squares (PLS)) have been used in order to summarize and visualize participant preference data of all case studies. In general, the method proposed in this thesis has several advantages over other visual design evaluation methods as for example use of standardized questionnaires. The method is flexible and can be used in various stages of design development but most importantly it allows for the identification of important visual design characteristics without ignoring the diversity that exist both among users and among website domains. These advantages have been demonstrated in the visual design evaluation studies presented in this thesis involving websites from four distinct domains. / Ο στόχος της παρούσας διατριβής είναι η πρόταση και ανάπτυξη μεθόδου αξιολόγησης διεπιφανειών χρήστη που θα λαμβάνει υπόψη τόσο τα αντικειμενικά χαρακτηριστικά σχεδιασμού, όσο και την υποκειμενική διάσταση που διέπει αξιολογήσεις με επίκεντρο τον χρήστη. Για την επίτευξη του στόχου αυτού αναπτύχθηκε μέθοδος αξιολόγησης, η οποία βασίζεται στην συγκριτική αξιολόγηση εναλλακτικών σχεδιασμών κατά την φάση συλλογής δεδομένων και στην χαρτογράφηση προτίμησης κατά την φάση ανάλυσης αποτελεσμάτων. Για την διερεύνηση της καταλληλότητας της προτεινόμενης μεθόδου αξιολόγησης, διεξήχθησαν τέσσερις μελέτες περίπτωσης κατά τις οποίες αξιολογήθηκαν συνολικά 51 ιστοσελίδες από 149 αξιολογητές. Κάθε μελέτη περίπτωσης διερευνούσε διαφορετική κατηγορία ιστοσελίδων και διαφορετικά σενάρια χρήσης της μεθόδου (π.χ. φάση προδιαγραφών, αξιολόγηση πρωτοτύπων κ.α.), έτσι ώστε να αξιολογηθεί η δυνατότητα της μεθόδου να εφαρμοστεί σε διαφορετικές συνθήκες. Σημαντικό πλεονέκτημα της προτεινόμενης μεθόδου είναι η δυνατότητα αναγνώρισης ετερογένειας απόψεων του δείγματος, η οποία σε άλλες μεθόδους αξιολόγησης θεωρείται θόρυβος στα δεδομένα και παραβλέπεται. Τα αποτελέσματα των αξιολογήσεων αναδεικνύουν σημαντική ετερογένεια αλλά και σχετική συμφωνία στις προτιμήσεις και αντιλήψεις των συμμετεχόντων. Με στόχο την ερμηνεία των αποτελεσμάτων από τα πειράματα αξιολόγησης διερευνήθηκαν τρεις πηγές δεδομένων πέρα από τις ταξινομήσεις προτίμησης από τους συμμετέχοντες σε όλες τις μελέτες περίπτωσης: α) αξιολογήσεις βάσει υποκειμενικών χαρακτηριστικών από τους ίδιους τους συμμετέχοντες που ταξινόμησαν τις ιστοσελίδες με βάση την προτίμηση τους β) αξιολογήσεις περιγραφικών και αντικειμενικών σχεδιαστικών χαρακτηριστικών από ομάδα εκπαιδευμένων εμπειρογνωμόνων γ) Αντικειμενικές μετρήσεις σχεδιαστικών χαρακτηριστικών με αυτόματα και ημιαυτόματα εργαλεία αναγνώρισης εικόνας Η δυνατότητα να ερμηνευτούν οι προτιμήσεις των χρηστών με την βοήθεια αυτών των πηγών δεδομένων, διερευνήθηκε ξεχωριστά αλλά και σε συνδυασμό σε κάθε μελέτη περίπτωσης. Στόχος ήταν να αποτιμηθεί η δυνατότητα συσχέτισης δεδομένων που διακατέχονται από διαφορετικά επίπεδα υποκειμενισμού με τις προτιμήσεις των συμμετεχόντων. Ιδανικά, θα αρκούσαν αντικειμενικές μετρήσεις και δεν θα επιβαρύνονταν οι χρήστες με επιπλέον βαθμολογήσεις των διεπιφανειών. Τα αποτελέσματα όμως έδειξαν ότι ένας συνδυασμός αντικειμενικών και υποκειμενικών χαρακτηριστικών ήταν ο βέλτιστος για την επιτυχή ερμηνεία των προτιμήσεων των χρηστών. Η μέθοδος αξιολόγησης που προτείνεται στα πλαίσια αυτής της διατριβής παρουσιάζει συγκριτικά πλεονεκτήματα σε σχέση με την χρήση τυποποιημένων ερωτηματολόγιων που είναι η επικρατέστερη μέθοδος στον χώρο της επικοινωνίας ανθρώπου υπολογιστή. Τα πλεονεκτήματα αυτά σχετίζονται κυρίως με την ευελιξία της μεθόδου και γίνονται εμφανή στις μελέτες αξιολόγησης που διεξήχθησαν με στόχο την εφαρμογή της μεθόδου για την αξιολόγηση ιστοσελίδων που ανήκουν σε τέσσερα διαφορετικά πεδία εφαρμογής.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The existing topologies of solar micro inverter use a number of stages before the DC input voltage can be converted to AC output voltage. These stages may contain one or more power converters. It may also contain a diode rectifier, transformer and filter. The number of active and passive components is very high. In this thesis, the design of a new solar micro inverter is proposed. This new micro inverter consists of a new single switch inverter which is obtained by modifying the already existing single ended primary inductor (SEPIC) DC-DC converter. This new inverter is capable of generating pure sinusoidal waveform from DC input voltage. The design and operation of the new inverter are studied in detail. This new inverter works with a controller to produce any kind of output waveform. The inverter is found to have four different modes of operation. The new inverter is modeled using state space averaging. The system is a fourth order system which is non-linear due to the inherent switching involved in the circuit. The system is linearized around an operating point to study the system as a linear system. The control to output transfer function of the inverter is found to be non-minimum phase. The transfer functions are studied using root locus. From the control perspective, the presence of right half zero makes the design of the controller structure complicated. The PV cell is modeled using the cell equations in MATLAB. A maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique is implemented to make sure the output power of the PV cell is always maximum which allows full utilization of the power from the PV cell. The perturb and observe (P&O) algorithm is the simplest and is used here. The use of this new inverter eliminates the various stages involved in the conventional solar micro inverter. Simulation and experimental results carried out on the setup validate the proposed structure of inverter.

This investigation identifies how CAD models of typical automotive body assemblies could be defined to allow a continuous optimisation of the number of iterations required for the final design and the number of variants on the basis of Parametric Associative Design (PAD) and how methodologies for the development of surfaces, parts and assemblies of the automotive body can be represented and structured for a multiple re-use in a collaborative environment of concept phase of a Product Evolution (Formation) Process (PEP). The standardisation of optimised processes and methodologies and the enhanced interaction between all parties involved in product development could lead to improve product quality and reduce development time and hence expenses. The fundamental principles of PAD, the particular methodologies used in automotive body design and the principles of methodical development and design in general are investigated. The role which automotive body engineers play throughout the activities of the PEP is also investigated. The distribution of design work in concept teams of automotive body development and important methodologies for the design of prismatic profile areas is critically analysed. To address the role and distribution of work, 25 group work projects were carried out in cooperation with the automotive industry. Large assemblies of the automotive bodies were developed. The requirements for distributed design work have been identified and improved. The results of the investigation point towards a file based, well structured administration of a concept design, with a zone based approach. The investigation was extended to the process chain of sections, which are used for development of surfaces, parts and assemblies. Important methods were developed, optimised and validated with regard to an update safe re-use of 3D zone based CAD models instead of 2D sections. The thesis presents a thorough description of the research undertaken, details the experimental results and provides a comprehensive analysis of them. Finally it proposes a unique methodology to a zone based approach with a clearly defined process chain of sections for an update-safe re-use of design models.