TY - JOUR A1 - Rausch, Lea A1 - Friesen, John A1 - Altherr, Lena A1 - Meck, Marvin A1 - Pelz, Peter F. T1 - A holistic concept to design optimal water supply infrastructures for informal settlements using remote sensing data JF - Remote Sensing N2 - Ensuring access to water and sanitation for all is Goal No. 6 of the 17 UN Sustainability Development Goals to transform our world. As one step towards this goal, we present an approach that leverages remote sensing data to plan optimal water supply networks for informal urban settlements. The concept focuses on slums within large urban areas, which are often characterized by a lack of an appropriate water supply. We apply methods of mathematical optimization aiming to find a network describing the optimal supply infrastructure. Hereby, we choose between different decentral and central approaches combining supply by motorized vehicles with supply by pipe systems. For the purposes of illustration, we apply the approach to two small slum clusters in Dhaka and Dar es Salaam. We show our optimization results, which represent the lowest cost water supply systems possible. Additionally, we compare the optimal solutions of the two clusters (also for varying input parameters, such as population densities and slum size development over time) and describe how the result of the optimization depends on the entered remote sensing data. KW - water supply design KW - mathematical optimization KW - slum classification KW - remote sensing Y1 - 2018 SN - 2072-4292 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs10020216 VL - 10 IS - 2 SP - 1 EP - 23 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Altherr, Lena A1 - Ederer, Thorsten A1 - Pfetsch, Marc E. A1 - Pelz, Peter F. T1 - Maschinelles Design eines optimalen Getriebes JF - ATZ - Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift N2 - Nahezu 100.000 denkbare Strukturen kann ein Getriebe bei gleicher Funktion aufweisen - je nach Ganganzahl und gefordertem Freiheitsgrad. Mit dem traditionellen Ansatz bei der Entwicklung, einzelne vielversprechende Systemkonfigurationen manuell zu identifizieren und zu vergleichen, können leicht innovative und vor allem kostenminimale Lösungen übersehen werden. Im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojekts hat die TU Darmstadt spezielle Optimierungsmethoden angewendet, um auch bei großen Lösungsräumen zielsicher ein für die individuellen Zielstellungen optimales Layout zu finden. Y1 - 2018 SN - 2192-8800 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s35148-018-0131-3 VL - 120 IS - 10 SP - 72 EP - 77 PB - Springer Nature CY - Cham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sun, Hui A1 - Altherr, Lena A1 - Pei, Ji A1 - Pelz, Peter F. A1 - Yuan, Shouqi T1 - Optimal booster station design and operation under uncertain load JF - Applied Mechanics and Materials N2 - Given industrial applications, the costs for the operation and maintenance of a pump system typically far exceed its purchase price. For finding an optimal pump configuration which minimizes not only investment, but life-cycle costs, methods like Technical Operations Research which is based on Mixed-Integer Programming can be applied. However, during the planning phase, the designer is often faced with uncertain input data, e.g. future load demands can only be estimated. In this work, we deal with this uncertainty by developing a chance-constrained two-stage (CCTS) stochastic program. The design and operation of a booster station working under uncertain load demand are optimized to minimize total cost including purchase price, operation cost incurred by energy consumption and penalty cost resulting from water shortage. We find optimized system layouts using a sample average approximation (SAA) algorithm, and analyze the results for different risk levels of water shortage. By adjusting the risk level, the costs and performance range of the system can be balanced, and thus the system’s resilience can be engineered KW - Stochastic Programming KW - Chance Constraint KW - Engineering Application KW - Pump System KW - Water Distribution Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.885.102 SN - 1662-7482 VL - 885 SP - 102 EP - 115 PB - Trans Tech Publications CY - Bäch ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Müller, Tim M. A1 - Altherr, Lena A1 - Ahola, Marja A1 - Schabel, Samuel A1 - Pelz, Peter F. T1 - Optimizing pressure screen systems in paper recycling: optimal system layout, component selection and operation N2 - Around 60% of the paper worldwide is made from recovered paper. Especially adhesive contaminants, so called stickies, reduce paper quality. To remove stickies but at the same time keep as many valuable fibers as possible, multi-stage screening systems with several interconnected pressure screens are used. When planning such systems, suitable screens have to be selected and their interconnection as well as operational parameters have to be defined considering multiple conflicting objectives. In this contribution, we present a Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Program to optimize system layout, component selection and operation to find a suitable trade-off between output quality and yield. KW - Mixed-integer nonlinear problem KW - MINLP KW - Process engineering KW - Paper recycling KW - Multi-criteria optimization Y1 - 2018 SN - 978-3-030-18499-5 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18500-8_44 SP - 355 EP - 361 PB - Springer CY - Cham ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Stenger, David A1 - Altherr, Lena A1 - Müller, Tankred A1 - Pelz, Peter F. T1 - Product family design optimization using model-based engineering techniques T2 - Operations Research Proceedings 2017 N2 - Highly competitive markets paired with tremendous production volumes demand particularly cost efficient products. The usage of common parts and modules across product families can potentially reduce production costs. Yet, increasing commonality typically results in overdesign of individual products. Multi domain virtual prototyping enables designers to evaluate costs and technical feasibility of different single product designs at reasonable computational effort in early design phases. However, savings by platform commonality are hard to quantify and require detailed knowledge of e.g. the production process and the supply chain. Therefore, we present and evaluate a multi-objective metamodel-based optimization algorithm which enables designers to explore the trade-off between high commonality and cost optimal design of single products. Y1 - 2018 SN - 978-3-319-89919-0 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89920-6_66 SP - 495 EP - 502 PB - Springer CY - Cham ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Leise, Philipp A1 - Altherr, Lena A1 - Pelz, Peter F. T1 - Technical Operations Research (TOR) - Algorithms, not Engineers, Design Optimal Energy Efficient and Resilient Cooling Systems T2 - FAN2018 - Proceedings of the International Conference on Fan Noise, Aerodynamics, Applications and Systems N2 - The overall energy efficiency of ventilation systems can be improved by considering not only single components, but by considering as well the interplay between every part of the system. With the help of the method "TOR" ("Technical Operations Research"), which was developed at the Chair of Fluid Systems at TU Darmstadt, it is possible to improve the energy efficiency of the whole system by considering all possible design choices programmatically. We show the ability of this systematic design approach with a ventilation system for buildings as a use case example. Based on a Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Program (MINLP) we model the ventilation system. We use binary variables to model the selection of different pipe diameters. Multiple fans are model with the help of scaling laws. The whole system is represented by a graph, where the edges represent the pipes and fans and the nodes represents the source of air for cooling and the sinks, that have to be cooled. At the beginning, the human designer chooses a construction kit of different suitable fans and pipes of different diameters and different load cases. These boundary conditions define a variety of different possible system topologies. It is not possible to consider all topologies by hand. With the help of state of the art solvers, on the other side, it is possible to solve this MINLP. Next to this, we also consider the effects of malfunctions in different components. Therefore, we show a first approach to measure the resilience of the shown example use case. Further, we compare the conventional approach with designs that are more resilient. These more resilient designs are derived by extending the before mentioned model with further constraints, that consider explicitly the resilience of the overall system. We show that it is possible to design resilient systems with this method already in the early design stage and compare the energy efficiency and resilience of these different system designs. Y1 - 2018 N1 - International Conference on Fan Noise, Aerodynamics, Applications and Systems 18-20.04.2018 Darmstadt, Deutschland SP - 1 EP - 12 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Leise, Philipp A1 - Altherr, Lena A1 - Pelz, Peter F. T1 - Energy-Efficient design of a water supply system for skyscrapers by mixed-integer nonlinear programming T2 - Operations Research Proceedings 2017 N2 - The energy-efficiency of technical systems can be improved by a systematic design approach. Technical Operations Research (TOR) employs methods known from Operations Research to find a global optimal layout and operation strategy of technical systems. We show the practical usage of this approach by the systematic design of a decentralized water supply system for skyscrapers. All possible network options and operation strategies are modeled by a Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Program. We present the optimal system found by our approach and highlight the energy savings compared to a conventional system design. KW - Engineering optimization KW - Global optimization KW - Energy efficiency KW - Water KW - Network Y1 - 2018 SN - 978-3-319-89919-0 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89920-6_63 PB - Springer CY - Cham ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Rausch, Lea A1 - Friesen, John A1 - Altherr, Lena A1 - Pelz, Peter F. ED - Kliewer, Natalia ED - Ehmke, Jan Fabian ED - Borndörfer, Ralf T1 - Using mixed-integer programming for the optimal design of water supply networks for slums T2 - Operations Research Proceedings 2017 N2 - The UN sets the goal to ensure access to water and sanitation for all people by 2030. To address this goal, we present a multidisciplinary approach for designing water supply networks for slums in large cities by applying mathematical optimization. The problem is modeled as a mixed-integer linear problem (MILP) aiming to find a network describing the optimal supply infrastructure. To illustrate the approach, we apply it on a small slum cluster in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Y1 - 2018 SN - 978-3-319-89919-0 (Print) SN - 978-3-319-89920-6 (Online) U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89920-6_68 N1 - International Conference of the German Operations Research Society (GOR), Freie Universiät Berlin, Germany, September 6-8, 2017. SP - 509 EP - 516 PB - Springer CY - Cham ER -