Civil Engineering and Symmetry

Abstract

A topic of utmost importance in civil engineering is finding optimal solutions throughout the life cycle of buildings and infrastructural objects, including their design, manufacturing, use, and maintenance. Operational research, management science, and optimisation methods provide a consistent and applicable groundwork for engineering decision-making. These topics have received the interest of researchers, and, after a rigorous peer-review process, eight papers have been published in the current special issue. The articles in this issue demonstrate how solutions in civil engineering, which bring economic, social and environmental benefits, are obtained through a variety of methodologies and tools. Usually, decision-makers need to take into account not just a single criterion, but several different criteria and, therefore, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches have been suggested for application in five of the published papers; the rest of the papers apply other research methods. The methods and application case studies are shortly described further in the editorial.Symmetry 2019, 11, 501 2 of 6 quite an important role in considering systems involving uncertainty in the information. Considerable research concerning decision-making has been performed by applying neural networks, fuzzy logic, and interval numbers. The success of these approaches relies on the fact that all these methods are derived through utilising the appropriate symmetries. Therefore, different fuzzy approaches have been proposed to model this type of information. For the most popular MCDM methods, such as DEMATEL, PROMETHEE, TOPSIS, AHP, ANP, VIKOR, COPRAS, ARAS, and WASPAS, fuzzy extensions have been proposed [2][3][4].Neuro-fuzzy systems have been proposed to cover more complicated formulations of decision-making problems. A comprehensive review, concerning numerous innovation aspects in neuro-fuzzy systems and the applications of these systems in various real-life issues, is presented in [5].Intensive research has been performed in order to extend their capabilities, concerning the more accurate modelling of the uncertain and vague initial information in decision-making problems. The various "fuzzy" approaches have been proposed to model different aspects of the information uncertainty. Neutrosophic sets, recently introduced by Smarandache, opened up new possibilities for representing the uncertain and inconsistent information encountered in decision-making formulations [6]. Fuzzy-rough sets have been applied in various fields, such as expert systems, knowledge discovery, information system, inductive reasoning, intelligent systems, data mining, pattern recognition, decision-making, and machine learning [7].Additionally, fuzzy sets have been intensively applied in decision-making problems modelled within the aggregation operator framework. Various aggregation operators under different fuzzy sets are reviewed in [8].The methodological aspects of the decision-making problems in civil engineering, concerning the combination and integ...

Research on Collaborative Planning and Symmetric Scheduling for Parallel Shipbuilding Projects in the Open Distributed Manufacturing Environment

“…These decision problems are usually solved by applying a multi-standard decision-making (MCDM) framework wherein decisions are built by considering multiple standards or perspectives. The most popular methods include DEMATEL (decision-making and trial evaluation laboratory), PROMETHEE (preferred order structure assessment method), TOPSIS, AHP (analytic hierarchy process), ANP (analytic network process), VIKOR (Višekriterijumsko kompromisno rangiranje), COPRAS (complex proportional assessment), ARAS (additive ratio assessment), and WASPAS (weighted aggregated sum-product assessment) [23].…”

“…(3) Define the weighting coefficient of two objectives as W = {ω i |i = 1, 2}, which can be calculated as Equations (21)- (23…”

“…Considering the distribution and symmetry of the planning and decision-making processes in the shipbuilding projects, an appropriate decision-making method and tool to assist the participants to make better decisions is extremely important. There are many researches on symmetric decision-making theory, including the decision-making model [19][20][21][22][23] and decision-making system modeling [24][25][26][27][28][29]. The purpose of this paper is to provide effective decision-making methods for project participants.…”

Research of the Operator’s Advisory System Based on Fuzzy Logic for Pelletizing Equipment

“…The results were evaluated by using the fuzzy logic module (Figure 13 shows the process control block). Fuzzy logic was chosen as one of the most popular decision-making models [48]. As a result, the estimate for perforated plate contamination was obtained.…”

The Use of Structural Symmetries of a U12 Engine in the Vibration Analysis of a Transmission

“…In January 2018, a special issue of the Symmetry magazine dedicated to applications in structural mechanics was launched (Civil Engineering and Symmetry-2018, a special issue of Symmetry-ISSN 2073-8994, see ref. [7]). A European project was also funded to study this type of problem (mechanics and symmetry in Europe: The geometry and dynamics of deformable systems.…”