Browsing by Author "Prieto, Andres J."

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Causal Effects between Criteria That Establish the End of Service Life of Buildings and Components
    (2022) Silva, Ana; de Brito, Jorge; Thomsen, Andre; Straub, Ad; Prieto, Andres J.; Lacasse, Michael A. A.
    In the last decades, considerable work has been done regarding service life prediction of buildings and building components. Academics and members of the CIB W080 commission, as well as of ISO TC 59/SC14, have made several efforts in this area and created a general terminology for the concept of service life, which is extremely relevant for property management, life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costs (LCC) analyses. Various definitions can be found in the literature that share common ideas. In fact, there are different criteria that trigger the end of a building's service life, but the trap that building practitioners too often fall into and that should be avoided is dividing a problem into separate boxes, labels, and specializations without the mutual cohesion and interaction, and ignoring human behavior. Some definitions of service life are discussed in this review paper, in which the cause-effect processes underlying aging and decay are described. These descriptions highlight the continuous interrelation between different criteria for the end of a building's service life, considering too often neglected and misunderstood causes of the end of life.
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    Estimating Functional and Physical Service Life of Timber Buildings Concerning Thermal Performance Simulations
    (MDPI, 2022) Prieto, Andres J.; Silva, Ana; Tori, Felipe; Carpio, Manuel
    Currently, the cities in southern region of Chile present extremely high levels of atmospheric pollution. One of the main reasons for that is the adoption of inadequate thermal envelopes, which are not adapted to the buildings' climatic and environmental surrounding conditions. Usually, the existing buildings do not have any type of thermal insulation, which causes excessive heating of spaces, in a region where the main source of heat is firewood. Thus, there is a need to intervene, improving the thermal energy performance of timber buildings, but will it be possible to make technically informed decisions that consider buildings' service life? In this study, 72 buildings in the cities of Valdivia and Niebla (South Chile) have been analysed based on in-situ visual inspections. Concerning the novelty of the study, two methodologies have been used to define the end of their physical and functional service life, establishing a hierarchical scale concerning the priority of intervention in timber buildings. After that, three different thermal energy insulation performance scenarios have been modelled in terms of evaluating current conditions, basic thermal rehabilitation, or deep thermal rehabilitation. A more effective and profound intervention in terms of thermal performance leads to better habitability conditions for the buildings' occupants in the context of South Chile, increasing their comfort between 36% to 46% of the year, when compared with current conditions. This kind of innovative analyses are extremely significant for the implementation of preventive maintenance programs focused not only on the restoration of the physical or functional service life of building stocks, but also considering their thermal energy performance in order to improve the habitability of the buildings for their occupants, and reducing both atmospheric pollutants and firewood consumption in the South of the country.
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    EXPERT PANEL ON IN-SITU VISUAL INSPECTIONS FOR MASONRY CHURCHES MAINTENANCE STAGE
    (VILNIUS GEDIMINAS TECH UNIV, 2021) Carpio, Manuel; Ortega, Jesus; Prieto, Andres J.
    The incorporation of protocols in heritage building preservation is important for the definition of preventive conservation actions. Such integration is needed to avoid restoration actions and to promote preventive maintenance instead of corrective maintenance actions. This paper presents the application of an innovative digital management system using artificial intelligence that can quantify the suitability of a sample. This kind of application can support the maintenance management of buildings and minimise human error in data collection. The fuzzy system showed slight differences between the members of the expert panel during the in-situ visual inspection. These results indicate that, despite differences between various experts' evaluation of a building, the proposed digital method helps minimise the uncertainty in the results. The paper highlights input variables, which present high dispersion (load state modification, fire and occupancy), and input parameters, which present low dispersion (preservation, roof design and overloads). Fuzzy systems can adequately manage the uncertainties associated with different experts' assessment of sample that present constructive homogeneity. This study can give advantages to stakeholders during the inspection, diagnosis and evaluation stages in the improvement of mitigation policies focused on preventive maintenance programs dedicated to the resilience of heritage buildings, specifically churches emplaced in Chile.
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    Expert Panel, Preventive Maintenance of Heritage Buildings and Fuzzy Logic System: An Application in Valdivia, Chile
    (MDPI, 2021) Carpio, Manuel; Prieto, Andres J.
    The maintenance of buildings is a highly complex decision process, which is generally due to professional experts having to consider several arduous evaluations, especially regarding uncertainty related to why, when and how to intervene. This study concerns the analysis of the uncertainty associated with professional experts' surveys during the decision-making process during building maintenance. For this purpose, a case study of a timber-structure building was examined. An expert panel of 66 professionals with expertise in construction engineering carried out a systematic and automated evaluation. This kind of digital method is capable of managing the uncertainty associated with the evaluation processes by different specialists. Experts can evaluate various nuances and approximations in the model's input parameters. The fuzzy model helps to harmonize the results since minor variations in the evaluation of the input parameters do not generate a large dispersion over the model's output variable. The novelty of this study concerns the application of a digital methodology based on a fuzzy logic model to assist a professional expert panel in different areas-architecture, engineering and construction. This study is oriented through an artificial intelligence based method applied by specialists to set intervention priorities, support maintenance management of the examined building and minimise human error during data collection and uncertainty related to making decisions. The lessons learned from the results obtained in this study promote the use of this kind of digital tool to manage the uncertainty associated with in-situ visual inspections.
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    Virtual web-based instruments in the evaluation of functional degradation of heritage timber buildings
    (2024) Prieto, Andres J.; Torres-Gonzalez, Marta; Carpio, Manuel
    The construction engineering and management sector is facing rapid technological disruption due to the extensive adoption of digital tools. The main aim of this research was to assess the accuracy and usefulness of web-based instruments used for the evaluation and mensuration of built environment characteristics. Through on-site visits and two web-based tools, a digital management system based on fuzzy logic was used to evaluate the functional service life of two heritage timber buildings in Valdivia (Chile). The assessments of 40 professional experts (4 on-site visual inspections and 36 virtual inspections) were compared to evaluate the relative accuracy and usefulness of the on-site and web-based instruments. Web-based audits, which used Google Street View and Google Maps, tended to agree strongly with on-site audits on the functional degradation of the timber structures (vulnerabilities and external hazard affections). While web-based tools do not offer a perfect substitute for on-site audits, they do allow for preliminary audits to be performed accurately from remote locations, potentially saving time and cost and increasing the effectiveness of subsequent on-site visits. The study findings may be useful to industry stakeholders in understanding the early impacts of the use of new remote digital inspection tools on the construction industry.