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McDuling with his award |
Johann Mc Duling (centre) with two of the Chairmen of the sessions in which he presented papers |
Property owners and investors need to optimise the service life of buildings to ensure that they get a good return on their investments. Thus the ability to quantify and predict changes in condition over time to ensure sustainable development in the built environment would be highly valuable. The current methods used for service life prediction take only limited account of changes in consideration and are restricted by the limited availability of data on the degradation of building materials.
Dr Johann McDuling, a senior researcher at the CSIR, has devised a method that calculates the service life of a building by quantifying changes in condition over time and determining the effects of maintenance levels on service life. McDuling was recognised recently when he received the Conference Best Paper Award at the 11th International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components held in Istanbul for his paper and presentation on this innovative methodology.
In McDuling's paper titled 'Service Life Prediction beyond the Factor Method', expert knowledge is used to express durability and degradation factors in 'IF-THEN' rules, which are translated into crisp probability values. McDuling says, "I use neuro-fuzzy artificial intelligence, which incorporates the human-like reasoning style of fuzzy systems through the use of fuzzy sets and a linguistic model consisting of a set of IF-THEN fuzzy rules. Thus linguistics (words) are translated into values, and this provides for the gap in current methodology." Fuzzy logic is a form of multi-valued logic with reasoning that is approximate rather than precise. His research in this area formed the basis for his PhD, which he received in 2006 from the University of Pretoria.
The 55-year-old researcher says, "Winning this award is the highlight of my career. This recognition is incredible. I am honoured and extremely humbled given that this conference is an international forum where international experts in this field meet." The conference is an initiative of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction, known as CIB, the world's foremost platform for international cooperation and information exchange in building and construction research and innovation.
McDuling has been involved in a wide range of projects in his career ranging from facility and maintenance management, structural engineering, water treatment and supply to roads.
Enquiries: CSIR Communications
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