Search results for "decision support tool."
showing 10 items of 11 documents
Artificial Neural Networks to assess energy and environmental performance of buildings: An Italian case study
2019
Abstract Approximately 40% of the European energy consumption and a large proportion of environmental impacts are related to the building sector. However, the selection of adequate and correct designs can provide considerable energy savings and reduce environmental impacts. To achieve this objective, a simultaneous energy and environmental assessment of a building's life cycle is necessary. To date, the resolution of this complex problem is entrusted to numerous software and calculation algorithms that are often complex to use. They involve long diagnosis phases and are characterised by the lack of a common language. Despite the efforts by the scientific community in the building sector, th…
Application of optimized artificial intelligence algorithm to evaluate the heating energy demand of non-residential buildings at European level
2019
Abstract A reliable preliminary forecast of heating energy demand of a building by using a detailed dynamic simulation software typically requires an in-depth knowledge of the thermal balance, several input data and a very skilled user. The authors will describe how to use Artificial Neural Networks to predict the demand for thermal energy linked to the winter climatization of non-residential buildings. To train the neural network it was necessary to develop an accurate energy database that represents the basis of the training of a specific Artificial Neural Networks. Data came from detailed dynamic simulations performed in the TRNSYS environment. The models were built according to the stan…
Artificial neural network decision support tool for assessment of the energy performance and the refurbishment actions for the non-residential buildi…
2017
The public buildings sector represents one of the most intensive items of EU energy consumption; the application of retrofit solutions in existing buildings is a crucial way to reduce its impact. To facilitate the knowledge of the energy performance of existing non-residential buildings and the choice of the more adequate actions, Public Administrations (PA) should have the availability of proper tools. Within the Italian project "POI 2007-13", a database and a decision support tool, for easy use, even to a non-technical user, have been developed. A large set of data, obtained from the energy audits of 151 existing public buildings located in four regions of South Italy have been analysed, …
Guidelines to compare additive and subtractive manufacturing approaches under the energy demand perspective
2020
In order to characterise the environmental performance of additive manufacturing (AM) processes, comparative analyses are required. Different manufacturing approaches (such as additive and subtractive ones), besides adopting different equipment, use different kinds and amounts of material. Therefore, the material-related flow has to be followed throughout the entire product life. Differences in environmental impact arise at each step of the life cycle: material production, manufacturing, use, disposal, and transportation. A life cycle-based methodology able to take due account of all the factors of influence on the total energy demand for the production of metal components is given in this …
A survey on energy performance of the non-residential public building stock in Southern Italy; toward a decision support tool for refurbishment actio…
2016
The public buildings sector represents one of the most intensive items of EU energy consumption; the application of retrofit solutions in existing buildings is a crucial way to reduce its impact. To facilitate the knowledge of the energy performance of the existing non-residential buildings and the choice of the more adequate actions, Public Administrations (PA) should have the availability of proper tools. Within the Italian project “POI 2007-13”, a database and a decision support tool, for easy use, even to a non-technical user, have been developed. A large set of data, obtained from the energy audits of 151 existing public buildings located in four regions of South of Italy have been ana…
Quantifying and resolving conservation conflicts in forest landscapes via multiobjective optimization
2017
Environmental planning for of the maintenance of different conservation objectives should take into account multiple contrasting criteria based on alternative uses of the landscape. We develop new concepts and approaches to describe and measure conflicts among conservation objectives and for resolving them via multiobjective optimization. To measure conflicts we introduce a compatibility index that quantifies how much targeting a certain conservation objective affects the capacity of the landscape for providing another objective. To resolve such conflicts we find compromise solutions defined in terms of minimax regret, i.e. minimizing the maximum percentage of deterioration among conservati…
A Decision Support Tool for Water and Energy Savingin the Integrated Water System
2015
Abstract In the last decades, a growing attention on energy saving associated with water resources usage and leakages reduction has been recorded at both national and international level. Scientific research has focused on implementation of several methodologies aimed at the understanding of energy transformation processes occurring in the integrated water system. The main concern is then identifying energy impacts associated to each macro-area of integrated water system, such as collection, treatment and distribution, and analysing the potential interactions between them. Unfortunately, only overall energy consumptions are usually available at national level. The main objective of the pape…
Environmental modelling of aluminium based components manufacturing routes: Additive manufacturing versus machining versus forming
2018
Abstract Additive Manufacturing represents, by now, a viable alternative for metal-based components production. Therefore the designer, often, has to select among three options at process design stage: subtractive, mass conserving, and additive approaches. The selection of a given process, besides affecting the manufacturing step impact, influences significantly the impact related to the material production step. If the process enables a part weight reduction (as the Additive Manufacturing approaches do) even the use phase is affected by the manufacturing approach selection. The present research provides a comprehensive environmental manufacturing approaches comparison for components made o…
Contamination Remediation with Soil Amendments by Immobilization of Heavy Metals
2015
Elektroniskā versija nesatur pielikumus
Tuning Decision Support Toolsfor Environmentally Friendly Manufacturing Approach Selection
2017
Awareness about the environmental performance of manufacturing approaches has arisen. Comparative analyses of different manufacturing approaches as well as decision support methods should be developed in the field of metal shaping processes. The present paper aims at tuning a decision support tool for identifying when mass conserving approaches (forming based) are actually preferable over machining processes for manufacturing aluminum based components. A full LCA is developed for comparing the environmental performance of forming and machining approaches as the batch size and geometry complexity hang. The impact of the used metric on the comparative results is analyzed. Results reveal that …