Dino Bouchlaghem’s research while affiliated with Nottingham Trent University and other places

The performance of Pimlico District Heating Undertaking (PDHU), in London, with an annual heating load of 50,000 MWh was analysed throughout 2012. Half-hourly data for the system were investigated to determine the natural gas consumed, operation of the 2500 m3 accumulator, the two 1.6 MWe combined heat and power (CHP) engines, the three 8 MW boilers, the electricity import and export and the consumers' heat consumption. These data were used to characterise the current performance in detail, and an energy flow diagram for the system energy flows was generated. The modulating efficiencies of the boilers varied from 84% to 91%, whereas the CHP engines performed with a modulating near constant electrical efficiency of 40%, but with a thermal efficiency that decreases with higher load. The current operation of the plant is compared across 10 scenarios. These scenarios were compared while (i) using the accumulator more effectively to let the boilers operate at full load only and (ii) using the provided maintenance agreement contract of the CHP engines to guarantee their good operation. Optimising the operation of the current plant reduces the annual heating cost of £165,000 or 12% and investing in additional CHP capacity can reduce the CO2 emissions by 28%.

Improvements in building construction and services need to be supported by an efficient building layout design based on the interrelations of functions in the building, circulation, and occupant characteristics to mitigate the impacts of extreme events on people. Current building codes, standards, and regulations are of a static type, giving typical measurements of surface areas and dimensions based on either the number of occupants using a space or the objects to be housed within it. Building design requires support from dynamic data that reflect the interactions of people with the building space and other people. This paper summarizes the building design issues associated with emergencies and presents a case study conducted to capture dynamic data during a building evacuation process. The results of the case studies in this research showed that distance and familiarity with the exits were the two most significant factors in exit preference, and there is not an equally balanced use of exit doors during emergency evacuations.

This paper builds on previous research by the authors which determined the global state-of-the-art of constructing tall buildings by surveying the most active specialist tall building professionals around the globe. That research identified the effect of wind on tower cranes as a highly ranked, common critical issue in tall building construction. The research reported here presents a design for a “Lifting Wing,” a uniquely designed shroud which potentially allows the lifting of building materials by a tower crane in higher and more unstable wind conditions, thereby reducing delay on the programmed critical path of a tall building. Wind tunnel tests were undertaken to compare the aerodynamic performance of a scale model of a typical “brick-shaped” construction load (replicating a load profile most commonly lifted via a tower crane) against the aerodynamic performance of the scale model of the Lifting Wing in a range of wind conditions. The data indicate that the Lifting Wing improves the aerodynamic performance by a factor of up to 50%.

Small power is a substantial energy end-use in office buildings in its own right, but also significantly contributes to internal heat gains. Technological advancements have allowed for higher efficiency computers, yet current working practices are demanding more out of digital equipment. Designers often rely on benchmarks to inform predictions of small power consumption, power demand and internal gains. These are often out of date and fail to account for the variability in equipment speciation and usage patterns in different offices. This paper details two models for estimating small power consumption in office buildings, alongside typical power demand profiles. The first model relies solely on the random sampling of monitored data, and the second relies on a ‘bottom-up’ approach to establish likely power demand and operational energy use. Both models were tested through a blind validation demonstrating a good correlation between metered data and monthly predictions of energy consumption. Prediction ranges for power demand profiles were also observed to be representative of metered data with minor exceptions. When compared to current practices, which often rely solely on the use of benchmarks, both proposed methods provide an improved approach to predicting the operational performance of small power equipment in offices.

The implementation of a new collaboration environment initiates many changes to an organization and to the end users as a result of the new way of working and the use of new technologies. Unless these changes are well managed at the organizational level, it will not be possible to achieve the full benefits expected from the implementation of the collaboration environment. This paper presents a framework for managing the organizational changes brought into construction organizations by the introduction of a new collaboration environment. The framework consists of five primary stages: initiation of change, development of change vision, planning of organizational change, implementation of change, and evaluation of change. The processes for each stage are detailed in integrated definition function modeling diagrams. The evaluators in construction organizations have found the framework to be successful in managing organizational changes.

As an engineering discipline within the United Kingdom, fire engineering is relatively young. It has been accepted as an alternative to traditional prescriptive means of meeting the functional requirements of the building regulations since the publication of the 1985 edition of Approved Document B. Performance-based fire engineering design methods have facilitated architectural design freedoms and supported creative construction. However, it has become evident that since fire engineering has become more established, significant concerns have been raised regarding various elements of the design process including the ability to consider aspects other than life safety. In response to these concerns, this article introduces novel application of concepts to assist the building design team to consider their client's resilience requirements. This is by utilising business continuity planning methods, specifically business impact analyses within the fire engineering qualitative design review. By using these concepts in this new way, the architectural design team will be able to identify those processes which are of greatest importance to their client's organisation, allowing the most appropriate fire engineering strategy to be established.

Collaborative working improves operational effectiveness, knowledge sharing and project delivery, all of which enable organisations deliver value to their clients. This is particularly important as the global business challenges architecture and engineering organisations face will increasingly require greater value to be obtained from less resource. Achieving this in a knowledge economy requires improvements in the nature of content as well as the processes and media through which often large volumes of information are created and managed. Organisations have over time developed and implemented various interventions ranging from point technology implementations to reorganising entire business processes to achieve this end, with varying degrees of success and failure. The findings from a qualitative study into the key lessons in developing and implementing effective information management strategies across organisations are presented herein. Nine expert practitioners from large UK-based architecture and engineering organisations were interviewed, the outputs of which were analysed using thematic analysis techniques. Seven key themes emerged. The findings provide much needed practical insights for practitioners and managers developing and implementing information management strategies across organisations. They show that improving collaborative working and information management to gain strategic advantages requires a holistic approach which aligns information needs with the organisations operational strategy.

This paper exploits the concept of the Delphi Method where a panel of experts is drawn together to deliberate and decide on the subjective issue of ‘fire safety management’. The paper describes the process of setting up the Panel, presenting their credentials, results and conclusions. As their starting point, the Panel were presented with an existing model of fire safety management containing ten categories of fire safety management. They were asked to consider these categories to confirm or repudiate their relevance and their definition. The Panel's conclusions represent the collective subjective perception of individuals with relevant experience in the field of fire safety management.The research carries the potential to reduce the cost of fire by addressing the root cause of most structural fires; inadequate fire safety management. Linking statistical evidence gathered from fire incidents to each category regarding the characteristics of ignition and the type of property, would enable the creation of property profiles. Analysis of the profiles would enable predicting, forecasting and targeting of the most damaging profiles. This could result in efficiency savings, benefits to the community and the environment and allow the fire and rescue service to re-balance its reactive and proactive resources.

Static information found in current building design guidance documents is not adequate to achieve efficient safety and security in public buildings during emergencies. There is a need to consider space characteristics and dynamic information related to building use, behavior and movement of users in various circumstances, as well as their interactions with each other and with their immediate environment. This paper explores the building design issues associated with safety and security and focuses on the exit preferences of building occupants during emergency evacuations. Exit preferences of users in public buildings were investigated using two types of case studies: Observation Case Studies (OCS) and Simulation Case Studies (SCS). The findings from the associated questionnaires and logistic analysis of the OCS data showed that “distance” and “familiarity” with the building were the two most important factors for exit preference in office buildings. It was also found that imbalanced use of exit doors considerably increases the evacuation time. Finally, further research study opportunities are discussed. SCS underscored the difference between evacuation assumptions in current building guidance compared with the results of real life experiments.

CIBSE’s Guide F is a widely recognised guidance document on energy efficiency in buildings, which includes energy consumption benchmarks for small power equipment in offices. In its recently published 3rd edition, existing power demand benchmarks for office equipment were revised to better represent appliances found in contemporary office buildings. Other key sources of data such as typical operating hours for equipment, however, have been omitted. This paper compares the benchmarks published in both the 2nd and 3rd editions of Guide F against a set of measurements of small power loads in a real UK office building. Load profiles for the monitored equipment are also presented to supplement the information included in the new Guide F. Practical application: With the increasing demand for more realistic predictions of operational energy use in buildings, small power should not be disregarded since it typically accounts for more than 20% of total energy used in offices. Furthermore, small power loads can have a significant impact on the cooling loads of a building. This paper reviews existing benchmarks, focusing on the new update to CIBSE Guide F, comparing available benchmarks against newly gathered monitored data. Detailed load profiles for individual office equipment are also provided, which can be used by designers to inform better predictions of small power consumption in office buildings.