AGROECOLOGICS. TOWARDS A TERRITORIAL, INTEGRATIVE AGRI-URBAN DESIGN. LUXEMBOURG AS A CASE STUDY.

Doctoral thesis (2021)

This PhD thesis deals with the interrelation of the disconnected fields of urbanism, agriculture, ecology and planning. Such an attempt was inspired by a renewed relationship between the urban and ... [more ▼]

This PhD thesis deals with the interrelation of the disconnected fields of urbanism, agriculture, ecology and planning. Such an attempt was inspired by a renewed relationship between the urban and agriculture, built from the perspective of agroecology and its manifestation in urban design and planning. Despite the growing interest in agricultural production in and around cities, urban planning processes are still ignoring its integration. In most instances when undeveloped land is available, neither food production nor the quality of soil have a high priority for planners and are mostly considered at the end of a planning process. While food entered the planning agenda more than a decade ago through the emergence of urban food planning, a perspective of food planning as a discipline towards an ‘urbanism’, i.e. agroecological urbanism, is still missing. Therefore, this PhD thesis is based on the conviction that urban planning should be reassessed from an agricultural perspective. In doing so, it introduces the notion of an agri-urban design, which aims to develop land with instead of against the agricultural landscape. The context of Luxembourg has been used to remedy such a missing link and propose a highly constructive and integrative planning approach that considers agriculture and its soil quality, within the planning process. The research is structured in five different methodological approaches ranging from a historical, comparative, multi-scalar case study, land-suitability towards a prospective approach. Each approach thereby builds on the findings of each other. Such a mixed-methods approach underlines the complexity and interdisciplinary nature of the different strands of urban and agricultural development. The results are subject to different validation methods, culminating in the formulation of a prospective vision of land use planning and design for the case of Luxembourg by combining agroecological principles. [less ▲]

AI-supported Modelling of Brain tissue as Soft Multiscale Multiphysics (Poroelastic) medium

Presentation (2022, January)

An Algorithm to compute damage from load in composites

in Frontiers of Architecture and Civil Engineering in China (2011), 5(2), 180-193

We present a new method to model fracture of concrete based on energy minimisation. The concrete is considered on the mesoscale as composite consisting of cement paste, aggregates and micro pores. In this ... [more ▼]

We present a new method to model fracture of concrete based on energy minimisation. The concrete is considered on the mesoscale as composite consisting of cement paste, aggregates and micro pores. In this first step, the alkali-silica reaction is taken into account through damage mechanics though the process is more complex involving thermo-hygro-chemo-mechanical reaction. We use a non-local damage model that ensures the well-posedness of the boundary value problem (BVP). In contrast to existing methods, the interactions between degrees of freedom evolve with the damage evolutions. Numerical results are compared to analytical and experimental results and show good agreement. [less ▲]

Alleviating the Mesh Burden in Computational Solid Mechanics

in Proceedings of ECT2010 (2010, December 12)

The goal of this chapter is to review recent avenues of investigation to alleviate meshing difficulties in computational mechanics and give a few exemplar applications. Keywords: meshing; enrichment ... [more ▼]

The goal of this chapter is to review recent avenues of investigation to alleviate meshing difficulties in computational mechanics and give a few exemplar applications. Keywords: meshing; enrichment; meshfree methods; extended finite element methods; isogeometric analysis; advanced remeshing techniques. [less ▲]

An alternative alpha finite element method (AαFEM) for free and forced structural vibration using triangular meshes

in Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics (2010), 233(9), 2112-2135

An alternative alpha finite element method (AαFEM) using triangular elements is proposed that significantly improves the accuracy of the standard triangular finite elements and provides a superconvergent ... [more ▼]

An alternative alpha finite element method (AαFEM) using triangular elements is proposed that significantly improves the accuracy of the standard triangular finite elements and provides a superconvergent solution in the energy norm for the static analysis of two-dimensional solid mechanics problems. In the AαFEM, the piecewise constant strain field of linear triangular FEM models is enhanced by additional strain terms with an adjustable parameter α which results in an effectively softer stiffness formulation compared to a linear triangular element. The element is further extended to the free and forced vibration analyses of solids. Several numerical examples show that the AαFEM achieves high reliability compared to other existing elements in the literature. [less ▲]

L'ambition métropolitaine: clé vers un aménagement du territoire transfrontalier en Grande Région SaarLorLux?

in L'information géographique (2015), 79

Analogies to Succeed: Application to a Service Design Problem

in Laakso, Miko; Ekman, Kalevi (Eds.) NordDesign 2014 Conference (2014, August)

This study aims to expand current understanding of ideation methods and its transferability from product design domain to service design domain. It applies two Design-by-Analogy (DbA) ideation methods ... [more ▼]

This study aims to expand current understanding of ideation methods and its transferability from product design domain to service design domain. It applies two Design-by-Analogy (DbA) ideation methods (WordTree and SCAMPER) to a real service design problem in an expert participants setting. Quantity and Novelty metric results are analysed along with design fixation effects. Both DbA methods produced statistically significant larger number of novel ideas when compared to the control. The number of novel ideas with SCAMPER method doubled those generated via WordTree. Fixation effects were counterintuitive since SCAMPER appears to be a method that promotes both fixation and de-fixation effects. These findings suggest DbA ideation methods offer positive capabilities for assisting designers to generate solutions for service design problems. [less ▲]

Analysing Product Modelling Approaches Across Domains - Supporting Communication in Interdisciplinary Design Teams

Poster (2011)

Analysis and Visualisation of Project Structure using Linkography: Focussing Project Risk Management

in Proceedings of the ASME 2009 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & 21st International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology IDETC/DTM 2009 (2009)

Product development projects are difficult to plan due to complexity, dynamics, lack of transparency and polytely. Risk Management is often used to cope with this situation. Linkography is adapted with ... [more ▼]

Product development projects are difficult to plan due to complexity, dynamics, lack of transparency and polytely. Risk Management is often used to cope with this situation. Linkography is adapted with the aim to ease the effort of the Risk Management process. Linkography is used to focus all Risk Management activities on those work packages which might affect the project the most in the case of failing the expected outcome. The criticality of a work package is defined by the number of links to other work packages, its duration and its costs. By applying Linkography as a Risk Management method, a prioritized list of work packages can be generated which pass consecutively through the usual Risk Management process. Unlike other methods, Linkography supports the user in a visual manner. Hence, Linkography can easily be used for communication with unskilled stakeholders. [less ▲]

Analysis of biochemical networks using linear programming

in Proceedings of the 7th World Congress of Chemical Engineering on CD-ROM (2005, December)

The application of mathematical programming methodologies to biochemical systems is demonstrated with the presentation of a linear programming (LP) algorithm for calculating minimal pathway distances in ... [more ▼]

The application of mathematical programming methodologies to biochemical systems is demonstrated with the presentation of a linear programming (LP) algorithm for calculating minimal pathway distances in biochemical networks. Minimal pathway distances are identified as the smallest number of steps separating two nodes in the network. Two case studies are examined: 1) the minimal distances for Escherichia coli Small Molecule Metabolism (SMM) enzymes are calculated and their correlations with genome distance and enzyme function are considered; 2) a study of the p53 cell cycle and apoptosis control network is performed in order to assess the survivability of the network to both random node failures and a directed assault, by studying the modification of the network’s diameter for successive protein knockouts. The results verify the applicability of the algorithm to problems of biochemical nature. [less ▲]