Search results for: wood building systems

Authors: S. M. Amin Hosseini, Oriol Pons, Albert de la Fuente

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After natural disasters, displaced people (DP) require important numbers of housing units, which have to be erected quickly due to emergency pressures. These tight timeframes can cause the multiplication of the environmental construction impacts. These negative impacts worsen the already high energy consumption and pollution caused by the building sector. Indeed, post-disaster housing, which is often carried out without pre-planning, usually causes high negative environmental impacts, besides other economic and social impacts. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a suitable strategy to deal with this problem which also takes into account the instability of its causes, like changing ratio between rural and urban population. To this end, this study aims to present a model that assists decision-makers to choose the most suitable building technology for post-disaster housing units. This model focuses on the alternatives sustainability and fulfillment of the stakeholders’ satisfactions. Four building technologies have been analyzed to determine the most sustainability technology and to validate the presented model. In 2003, Bam earthquake DP had their temporary housing units (THUs) built using these four technologies: autoclaved aerated concrete blocks (AAC), concrete masonry unit (CMU), pressed reeds panel (PR), and 3D sandwich panel (3D). The results of this analysis confirm that PR and CMU obtain the highest sustainability indexes. However, the second life scenario of THUs could have considerable impacts on the results.

Keywords: sustainability, post-disaster temporary housing, integrated value model for sustainability assessment, life cycle assessment

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Authors: Amirreza Niktash, B. P. Huynh

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A windcatcher is a structure fitted on the roof of a building for providing natural ventilation by using wind power; it exhausts the inside stale air to the outside and supplies the outside fresh air into the interior space of the building working by pressure difference between outside and inside of the building and using ventilation principles of passive stacks and wind tower, respectively. In this paper, the effect of different heights of inlet/outlets’ ducts of a two-sided windcatcher on the flow rate, flow velocity and flow pattern through a three-dimensional room fitted with the windcatcher are investigated and analysed by using RANS CFD technique and applying standard K-ε turbulence model via a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package. The achieved results show that the inlet/outlet ducts height strongly affects flow rate, flow velocity and flow pattern especially in the living area of the room when the wind velocity is not too low. The results are confirmed by the experimental test for constructed scaled model in the laboratory and it develops the two-sided windcatcher’s performance in ventilation applications.

Keywords: CFD, RANS, ventilation, windcatcher

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Authors: Faris Elghaish, Sepehr Abrishami, Mark Gaterell, Richard Wise

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The collaboration and integration between all building information management (BIM) processes and tasks are necessary to ensure that all project objectives can be delivered. The literature review has been used to explore the state of the art BIM technologies to manage construction materials as well as the challenges which have faced the construction process using traditional methods. Thus, this paper aims to articulate a framework to integrate traditional material planning methods such as ABC analysis theory (Pareto principle) to analyse and categorise the project materials, as well as using independent material planning methods such as Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) and Fixed Order Point (FOP) into the BIM 4D, and 5D capabilities in order to articulate a dependent material planning cycle into BIM, which relies on the constructability method. Moreover, we build a model to connect between the material planning outputs and the BIM 4D and 5D data to ensure that all project information will be accurately presented throughout integrated and complementary BIM reporting formats. Furthermore, this paper will present a method to integrate between the risk management output and the material management process to ensure that all critical materials are monitored and managed under the all project stages. The paper includes browsers which are proposed to be embedded in any 4D BIM platform in order to predict the EOQ as well as FOP and alarm the user during the construction stage. This enables the planner to check the status of the materials on the site as well as to get alarm when the new order will be requested. Therefore, this will lead to manage all the project information in a single context and avoid missing any information at early design stage. Subsequently, the planner will be capable of building a more reliable 4D schedule by allocating the categorised material with the required EOQ to check the optimum locations for inventory and the temporary construction facilitates.

Keywords: building information management, BIM, economic order quantity, EOQ, fixed order point, FOP, BIM 4D, BIM 5D

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Authors: Ankur Jain, W. Wilfred Godfrey

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Embedded systems are usually microcontroller-based systems that represent a class of reliable and dependable dedicated computer systems designed for specific purposes. Micro-controllers are used in most electronic devices in an endless variety of ways. Some micro-controller-based embedded systems are required to respond to external events in the shortest possible time and such systems are known as real-time embedded systems. So in multitasking system there is a need of task Scheduling,there are various scheduling algorithms like Fixed priority Scheduling(FPS),Earliest deadline first(EDF), Rate Monotonic(RM), Deadline Monotonic(DM),etc have been researched. In this Report various conventional algorithms have been reviewed and analyzed, these algorithms consists of single shape task, A new Multishape scheduling algorithms has been proposed and implemented and analyzed.

Keywords: dm, edf, embedded systems, fixed priority, microcontroller, rtos, rm, scheduling algorithms

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Authors: A. Volperts, G. Dobele, A. Zhurinsh, I. Kruusenberg, A. Plavniece, J. Locs

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Nowadays energy consumption constantly increases and development of effective and cheap electrochemical sources of power, such as fuel cells and electrochemical capacitors, is topical. Due to their high specific power, charge and discharge rates, working lifetime supercapacitor based energy accumulation systems are more and more extensively being used in mobile and stationary devices. Lignocellulosic materials are widely used as precursors and account for around 45% of the total raw materials used for the manufacture of activated carbon which is the most suitable material for supercapacitors. First part of our research is devoted to study of influence of main stages of wood thermochemical activation parameters on activated carbons porous structure formation. It was found that the main factors governing the properties of carbon materials are specific surface area, volume and pore size distribution, particles dispersity, ash content and oxygen containing groups content. Influence of activated carbons attributes on capacitance and working properties of supercapacitor are demonstrated. The correlation between activated carbons porous structure indices and electrochemical specifications of supercapacitors with electrodes made from these materials has been determined. It is shown that if synthesized activated carbons are used in supercapacitors then high specific capacitances can be reached – more than 380 F/g in 4.9M sulfuric acid based electrolytes and more than 170 F/g in 1 M tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate in acetonitrile electrolyte. Power specifications and minimal price of H₂-O₂ fuel cells are limited by the expensive platinum-based catalysts. The main direction in development of non-platinum catalysts for the oxygen reduction is the study of cheap porous carbonaceous materials which can be obtained by the pyrolysis of polymers including renewable biomass. It is known that nitrogen atoms in carbon materials to a high degree determine properties of the doped activated carbons, such as high electrochemical stability, hardness, electric resistance, etc. The lack of sufficient knowledge on the doping of the carbon materials calls for the ongoing researches of properties and structure of modified carbon matrix. In the second part of this study, highly porous activated carbons were synthesized using alkali thermochemical activation from wood, cellulose and cellulose production residues – craft lignin and sewage sludge. Activated carbon samples were doped with dicyandiamide and melamine for the application as fuel cell cathodes. Conditions of nitrogen introduction (solvent, treatment temperature) and its content in the carbonaceous material, as well as porous structure characteristics, such as specific surface and pore size distribution, were studied. It was found that efficiency of doping reaction depends on the elemental oxygen content in the activated carbon. Relationships between nitrogen content, porous structure characteristics and electrodes electrochemical properties are demonstrated.

Keywords: activated carbons, low-temperature fuel cells, nitrogen doping, porous structure, supercapacitors

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Authors: Dong Yinan, Zhou Zijie

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Urban fringe belt is an important part of urban morphology research. Different from the relatively fixed central district of city, the position of fringe belt is changing. In the process of urban expansion, the original fringe belt is likely to be merged by the new-built city, even become new city public center. During the change, we are facing the dialectic between restoring the organicity of old urban form and creating new urban image. There are lots of relevant research in urban scale, but when we focus on building scale, rare design method can be proposed, thus some new individual building cannot match the overall urban planning intent. The expansion project of the second middle school in Xuancheng is facing this situation. The existing campus is located in the south fringe belt of Xuancheng, Anhui province, China, adjacent to farmland and ponds. While based on the Xucheng urban planning, the farmland and ponds will be transformed into a big lake, around which new public center will be built; the expansion of the school becomes an important part of the boundary of the new public center. Therefore, the expansion project faces challenges from both urban and building scale. In urban scale, we analyze and summarize the fringe belt characters through the reading of existing and future urban organism, in order to determine the form of the expansion project. Meanwhile, in building scale, we study on different types of school buildings and select appropriate type which can satisfy to both urban form and school function. This research attempts to investigate design methods based on an under construction project in Xuancheng, a historic city in southeast China. It also aims to bridge the gap from urban design to individual building design through the typo-morphological research.

Keywords: design methods, urban fringe belt, typo-morphological research, middle school

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Authors: P. Vinayagam, A. Madhanagopal

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This experimental investigation focuses on the study of the strength of concrete with ceramic waste as coarse aggregate. It is not a new concept of using alternate materials for aggregates. Pottery and ceramics have been an important part of human culture for thousands of years. The ceramic waste from ceramic and construction industries is a major contribution to construction demolition waste (CDW), representing a serious environmental, technical, and economical problem of today’s society. The major sources of ceramic waste are ceramic industry, building construction and building demolition. In ceramic industries, a significant part of the losses in the manufacturing of ceramic elements is not returned to the production process. In building construction, ceramic waste is produced during transportation to the building site, on the execution of several construction elements and on subsequent works. This waste is regionally deposited in dumping grounds, without any separation or reuse. In this study an attempt has been made to find the suitability of the ceramic industrial wastes as a possible replacement for conventional crushed stone coarse aggregate in high performance concrete. In this study, glazed stoneware pipe waste was used as coarse aggregates. In this investigation, physical properties of ceramic waste coarse aggregates were studied. Experiments were carried out to determine the strength of high performance concrete with silica fume and ceramic stoneware pipe waste coarse aggregate of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% different replacement ratios in comparison with those of corresponding conventional concrete mixes.

Keywords: ceramic waste, coarse aggregate replacement, glazed stoneware pipe waste, silica fume

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Authors: Vinay Agrawal, Suyash Garg, Ravindra Nagar, Vinay Chandwani

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Open ground storey with floating columns is a typical feature in the modern multistory constructions in urban India. Such features are very much undesirable in buildings built in seismically active areas. The present study proposes a feasible solution to mitigate the effects caused due to non-uniformity of stiffness and discontinuity in load path and to simultaneously hold the functional use of the open storey particularly under the floating column, through a combination of various lateral strengthening systems. An investigation is performed on an example building with nine different analytical models to bring out the importance of recognising the presence of open ground storey and floating columns. Two separate analyses on various models of the building namely, the equivalent static analysis and the response spectrum analysis as per IS: 1893-2002 were performed. Various measures such as incorporation of Chevron bracings and shear walls, strengthening the columns in the open ground storey, and their different combinations were examined. The analysis shows that, in comparison to two short ones separated by interconnecting beams, the structural walls are most effective when placed at the periphery of the buildings and used as one long structural wall. Further, it can be shown that the force transfer from floating columns becomes less horizontal when the Chevron Bracings are placed just below them, thereby reducing the shear forces in the beams on which the floating column rests.

Keywords: equivalent static analysis, floating column, open ground storey, response spectrum analysis, shear wall, stiffness irregularity

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Authors: David Koren, Vojko Kilar

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The modern energy-efficient houses are often founded on a thermal insulation (TI) layer placed under the building’s RC foundation slab. The purpose of the paper is to identify the potential problems of the buildings founded on TI layer from the seismic point of view. The two main goals of the study were to assess the seismic behavior of such buildings, and to search for the critical structural parameters affecting the response of the superstructure as well as of the extruded polystyrene (XPS) layer. As a test building a multi-storeyed RC frame structure with and without the XPS layer under the foundation slab has been investigated utilizing nonlinear dynamic (time-history) and static (pushover) analyses. The structural response has been investigated with reference to the following performance parameters: i) Building’s lateral roof displacements, ii) Edge compressive and shear strains of the XPS, iii) Horizontal accelerations of the superstructure, iv) Plastic hinge patterns of the superstructure, v) Part of the foundation in compression, and vi) Deformations of the underlying soil and vertical displacements of the foundation slab (i.e. identifying the potential uplift). The results have shown that in the case of higher and stiff structures lying on firm soil the use of XPS under the foundation slab might induce amplified structural peak responses compared to the building models without XPS under the foundation slab. The analysis has revealed that the superstructure as well as the XPS response is substantially affected by the stiffness of the foundation slab.

Keywords: extruded polystyrene (XPS), foundation on thermal insulation, energy-efficient buildings, nonlinear seismic analysis, seismic response, soil–structure interaction

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Authors: Mogens Saberi

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The following article focuses on a new seismic design approach for Denmark. Denmark is located in a low seismic zone and up till now a general and very simplified approach has been used to accommodate the effect of seismic loading. The current used method is presented and it is found that the approach is on the unsafe side for many building types in Denmark. The damages during time due to earth quake is presented and a seismic map for Denmark is developed and presented. Furthermore, a new design approach is suggested and compared to the existing one. The new approach is relatively simple but captures the effect of seismic loading more realistic than the existing one. The new approach is believed to the incorporated in the Danish Deign Code for building structures.

Keywords: low seismicity, new design approach, earthquakes, Denmark

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Authors: Tukundane Hillary

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This research paper analytically evaluates the project control practice levels used by the building construction companies within Kampala, Uganda. The research also assesses the outcome of project control practices on the productivity of the companies. The research was performed to ascertain the current control practices among 160 respondents from various construction companies registered with the Uganda Registration Services Bureau. This research used amalgamation from multiple literature to obtain the variables. The research adopts 34 standard control practices from four vital project control duties: planning, monitoring, analyzing, and reporting. These project control tasks were organized using mean response ratings grounded on their relevance to the construction companies. Results showed that evaluating performance with the use of curves (4.32), timely access to information and encouragement (4.55), report representation using quantitative tools 4.75, and cost value comparison application during analysis (4.76) were rated least among the control practices. On the other hand, the top project control practices included formulation of the project schedule (8.88), Project feasibility validation (8.86), Budgeting for each activity (8.84), Key project route definition (8.81), Team awareness of the budget (8.77), Setting realistic targets for projects (8.50) and Consultation from subcontractors (8.74). From the results obtained by the sample respondents specified, it can be concluded that planning is the most vital project control task practiced in the building construction industry in Uganda. In addition, this research ascertained a substantial relationship between project control practices and the performance of building construction companies. Accordingly, this research recommends that project control practices be effectively observed by both contracting and consulting companies to enhance their overall performance and governance.

Keywords: cost value, project control, cost control, time control, project performance, control practices

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Authors: A. Iaaly, O. Jadayel, R. Jadayel

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This paper explores the effectiveness of approaches used for the implementation of technology within central governments specifically Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It examines the extent to which various strategies to GIS implementation and its roll out to users within an organization is crucial for its long term assimilation. Depending on the contextual requirements, various implementation strategies exist spanning from the most revolutionary to the most evolutionary, which have an influence on the success of GIS projects and the realization of resulting business benefits within the central governments. This research compares between two strategies of GIS implementation within the Lebanese Municipalities. The first strategy is the “Technological Approach” which is focused on technology acquisition, overlaid on existing governmental frameworks. This approach gives minimal attention to capability building and the long term sustainability of the implemented program. The second strategy, referred to as the “Ecological Approach”, is naturally oriented to the function of the organization. This approach stresses on fostering the evolution of the program and on building the human capabilities. The Union of the Joumeh Municipalities will be presented as a case study under the “Ecological Approach” and the role of the GIS Center at the University of Balamand will be highlighted. Thus, this research contributes to the development of knowledge on technology implementation and the vital role of academia in the specific context of the Lebanese public sector so that this experience may pave the way for further applications.

Keywords: ecological approach GIS, low income countries, technological approach

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Authors: Md Tanvir Rahman, Mahbube Subhani, Mahmud Ashraf, Paul Kremer

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Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is made from layers of timber boards orthogonally oriented in the thickness direction, and due to this, CLT can withstand bi-axial bending in contrast with most other engineered wood products such as laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and glued laminated timber (GLT). Wood is cylindrically anisotropic in nature and is characterized by significantly lower elastic modulus and shear modulus in the planes perpendicular to the fibre direction, and is therefore classified as orthotropic material and is thus characterized by 9 elastic constants which are three elastic modulus in longitudinal direction, tangential direction and radial direction, three shear modulus in longitudinal tangential plane, longitudinal radial plane and radial tangential plane and three Poisson’s ratio. For simplification, timber materials are generally assumed to be transversely isotropic, reducing the number of elastic properties characterizing it to 5, where the longitudinal plane and radial planes are assumed to be planes of symmetry. The validity of this assumption was investigated through numerical modelling of CLT with both orthotropic mechanical properties and transversely isotropic material properties for three softwood species, which are Norway spruce, Douglas fir, Radiata pine, and three hardwood species, namely Victorian ash, Beech wood, and Aspen subjected to uniformly distributed loading under simply supported boundary condition. It was concluded that assuming the timber to be transversely isotropic results in a negligible error in the order of 1 percent. It was also observed that along with longitudinal elastic modulus, ratio of longitudinal shear modulus (GL) and rolling shear modulus (GR) has a significant effect on a deflection for CLT panels of lower span to depth ratio. For softwoods such as Norway spruce and Radiata pine, the ratio of longitudinal shear modulus, GL to rolling shear modulus GR is reported to be in the order of 12 to 15 times in literature. This results in shear flexibility in transverse layers leading to increased deflection under out-of-plane loading. The rolling shear modulus of hardwoods has been found to be significantly higher than those of softwoods, where the ratio between longitudinal shear modulus to rolling shear modulus as low as 4. This has resulted in a significant rise in research into the manufacturing of CLT from entirely from hardwood, as well as from a combination of softwood and hardwoods. The commonly used beam theory to analyze the performance of CLT panels under out-of-plane loads are the Shear analogy method, Gamma method, and k-method. The shear analogy method has been found to be the most effective method where shear deformation is significant. The effect of the ratio of longitudinal shear modulus and rolling shear modulus of cross-layer on the deflection of CLT under uniformly distributed load with respect to its length to depth ratio was investigated using shear analogy method. It was observed that shear deflection is reduced significantly as the ratio of the shear modulus of the longitudinal layer and rolling shear modulus of cross-layer decreases. This indicates that there is significant room for improvement of the bending performance of CLT through developing hybrid CLT from a mix of softwood and hardwood.

Keywords: rolling shear modulus, shear deflection, ratio of shear modulus and rolling shear modulus, timber

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Authors: Nesreddine Djafar Henni, Nassim Djedoui, Rachid Chebili

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Recent decades have witnessed significant efforts being made to optimize different types of structures and components. The concept of cost optimization in reinforced concrete structures, which aims at minimizing financial resources while ensuring maximum building safety, comprises multiple materials, and the objective function for their optimal design is derived from the construction cost of the steel as well as concrete that significantly contribute to the overall weight of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. To achieve this objective, this work has been devoted to optimizing the structural design of 3D RC frame buildings which integrates, for the first time, the Algerian regulations. Three different test examples were investigated to assess the efficiency of our work in optimizing RC frame buildings. The hybrid GWOPSO algorithm is used, and 30000 generations are made. The cost of the building is reduced by iteration each time. Concrete and reinforcement bars are used in the building cost. As a result, the cost of a reinforced concrete structure is reduced by 30% compared with the initial design. This result means that the 3D cost-design optimization of the framed structure is successfully achieved.

Keywords: optimization, automation, API, Malab, RC structures

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Authors: Mohamed Asaad Abdelrazek, Amir Taher El-Sheikh, M. Zayan, A.M. Elhady

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The successful realization of complex systems is dependent not only on the technology issues and the process for implementing them, but on the management issues as well. Managing the systems development lifecycle requires technical management. Systems engineering management is the technical management. Systems engineering management is accomplished by incorporating many activities. The three major activities are development phasing, systems engineering process and lifecycle integration. Systems engineering management activities are performed across the system development lifecycle. Due to the ever-increasing complexity of systems as well the difficulty of managing and tracking the development activities, new ways to achieve systems engineering management activities are required. This paper presents a systematic approach used as a design management tool applied across systems engineering management roles. In this approach, Transdisciplinary System Development Lifecycle (TSDL) Model has been modified and integrated with Quality Function Deployment. Hereinafter, the name of the systematic approach is the Transdisciplinary Quality System Development Lifecycle (TQSDL) Model. The QFD translates the voice of customers (VOC) into measurable technical characteristics. The modified TSDL model is based on Axiomatic Design developed by Suh which is applicable to all designs: products, processes, systems and organizations. The TQSDL model aims to provide a robust structure and systematic thinking to support the implementation of systems engineering management roles. This approach ensures that the customer requirements are fulfilled as well as satisfies all the systems engineering manager roles and activities.

Keywords: axiomatic design, quality function deployment, systems engineering management, system development lifecycle

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Authors: K. Liagkouras, K. Metaxiotis

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Customer relationship management (CRM) systems in business are a reality of the contemporary business world for the last decade or so. Still, there are grey areas regarding the successful implementation and operation of CRM systems in business. This paper, through the systematic study of the CRM implementation paradigm, attempts to identify the most important challenges and opportunities that the CRM systems face in a rapidly changing business world.

Keywords: customer relationship management, CRM, business, literature review

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Authors: Jacob Seddlemeyer, Tahar Messadi, Hongmei Gu, Mahboobeh Hemmati

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The main purpose of this first tier of the study is to quantify and compare the embodied environmental impacts associated with alternative materials applied to Adohi Hall, a residence building at the University of Arkansas campus, Fayetteville, AR. This 200,000square foot building has5 stories builtwith mass timber and is compared to another scenario where the same edifice is built with a steel frame. Based on the defined goal and scope of the project, the materials respectivetothe respective to the two building options are compared in terms of Global Warming Potential (GWP), starting from cradle to the construction site, which includes the material manufacturing stage (raw material extract, process, supply, transport, and manufacture) plus transportation to the site (module A1-A4, based on standard EN 15804 definition). The consumedfossil fuels and emitted CO2 associated with the buildings are the major reason for the environmental impacts of climate change. In this study, GWP is primarily assessed to the exclusion of other environmental factors. The second tier of this work is to evaluate Tally’s performance in the decision-making process through the design phases, as well as determine its strengths and weaknesses. Tally is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool capable of conducting a cradle-to-grave analysis. As opposed to other software applications, Tally is specifically targeted at buildings LCA. As a peripheral application, this software tool is directly run within the core modeling application platform called Revit. This unique functionality causes Tally to stand out from other similar tools in the building sector LCA analysis. The results of this study also provide insights for making more environmentally efficient decisions in the building environment and help in the move forward to reduce Green House Gases (GHGs) emissions and GWP mitigation.

Keywords: comparison, GWP, LCA, materials, tally

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Authors: H. Jamili, S. Shakiba

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Today, one of the main concerns of human beings is facing the unpleasant changes of the environment. Buildings are responsible for a significant amount of natural resources consumption and carbon emissions production. In such a situation, this thought comes to mind that changing each building into a phenomenon of benefit to the environment. A change in a way that each building functions as an element that supports the environment, and construction, in addition to answering the need of humans, is encouraged, the way planting a tree is, and it is no longer seen as a threat to alive beings and the planet. Prospect: Today, different ideas of developing materials that can smartly function are realizing. For instance, Programmable Materials, which in different conditions, can respond appropriately to the situation and have features of modification in shape, size, physical properties and restoration, and repair quality. Studies are to progress having this purpose to plan for these materials in a way that they are easily available, and to meet this aim, there is no need to use expensive materials and high technologies. In these cases, physical attributes of materials undertake the role of sensors, wires and actuators then materials will become into robots itself. In fact, we experience robotics without robots. In recent decades, AI and technology advances have dramatically improving the performance of materials. These achievements are a combination of software optimizations and physical productions such as multi-materials 3D printing. These capabilities enable us to program materials in order to change shape, appearance, and physical properties to interact with different situations. nIt is expected that further achievements like Memory Materials and Self-learning Materials are also added to the Smart Materials family, which are affordable, available, and of use for a variety of applications and industries. From the architectural standpoint, the building skin is significantly considered in this research, concerning the noticeable surface area the buildings skin have in urban space. The purpose of this research would be finding a way that the programmable materials be used in building skin with the aim of having an effective and positive interaction. A Pixel Façade would be a solution for programming a building skin. The Pixel Facadeincludes components that contain a series of attributes that help buildings for their needs upon their environmental criteria. A PIXEL contains series of smart materials and digital controllers together. It not only benefits its physical properties, such as control the amount of sunlight and heat, but it enhances building performance by providing a list of features, depending on situation criteria. The features will vary depending on locations and have a different function during the daytime and different seasons. The primary role of a PIXEL FAÇADE can be defined as filtering pollutions (for inside and outside of the buildings) and providing clean energy as well as interacting with other PIXEL FACADES to estimate better reactions.

Keywords: building skin, environmental crisis, pixel facade, programmable materials, smart materials

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Authors: Ahmed Mantawy, James C. Anderson

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Numerous cases of earthquakes (main-shocks) that were followed by aftershocks have been recorded in California. In 1992 a pair of strong earthquakes occurred within three hours of each other in Southern California. The first shock occurred near the community of Landers and was assigned a magnitude of 7.3 then the second shock occurred near the city of Big Bear about 20 miles west of the initial shock and was assigned a magnitude of 6.2. In the same year, a series of three earthquakes occurred over two days in the Cape-Mendocino area of Northern California. The main-shock was assigned a magnitude of 7.0 while the second and the third shocks were both assigned a value of 6.6. This paper investigates the effect of a main-shock accompanied with aftershocks of significant intensity on reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings to indicate nonlinear behavior using PERFORM-3D software. A 6-story building in San Bruno and a 20-story building in North Hollywood were selected for the study as both of them have RC moment resisting frame systems. The buildings are also instrumented at multiple floor levels as a part of the California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP). Both buildings have recorded responses during past events such as Loma-Prieta and Northridge earthquakes which were used in verifying the response parameters of the numerical models in PERFORM-3D. The verification of the numerical models shows good agreement between the calculated and the recorded response values. Then, different scenarios of a main-shock followed by a series of aftershocks from real cases in California were applied to the building models in order to investigate the structural behavior of the moment-resisting frame system. The behavior was evaluated in terms of the lateral floor displacements, the ductility demands, and the inelastic behavior at critical locations. The analysis results showed that permanent displacements may have happened due to the plastic deformation during the main-shock that can lead to higher displacements during after-shocks. Also, the inelastic response at plastic hinges during the main-shock can change the hysteretic behavior during the aftershocks. Higher ductility demands can also occur when buildings are subjected to trains of ground motions compared to the case of individual ground motions. A general conclusion is that the occurrence of aftershocks following an earthquake can lead to increased damage within the elements of an RC frame buildings. Current code provisions for seismic design do not consider the probability of significant aftershocks when designing a new building in zones of high seismic activity.

Keywords: reinforced concrete, existing buildings, aftershocks, damage accumulation

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Authors: Dararat Tongdee, Surapong Chirarattananon, Somchai Maneewan, Chantana Punlek

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Recently, the Internet of Things (IoT) is the important technology that connects devices to the network and people can access real-time communication. This technology is used to report, collect, and analyze the big data for achieving a purpose. For a smart building, there are many IoT technologies that enable management and building operators to improve occupant thermal comfort, indoor air quality, and building energy efficiency. In this research, we propose monitoring and controlling performance of a smart dedicated outdoor air system (SDOAS) based on IoT platform. The SDOAS was specifically designed with the desiccant unit and thermoelectric module. The designed system was intended to monitor, notify, and control indoor environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) level. The SDOAS was tested under the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE 62.2) and indoor air quality standard. The system will notify the user by Blynk notification when the status of the building is uncomfortable or tolerable limits are reached according to the conditions that were set. The user can then control the system via a Blynk application on a smartphone. The experimental result indicates that the temperature and humidity of indoor fresh air in the comfort zone are approximately 26 degree Celsius and 58% respectively. Furthermore, the CO₂ level was controlled lower than 1000 ppm by indoor air quality standard condition. Therefore, the proposed system can efficiently work and be easy to use for buildings.

Keywords: internet of things, indoor air quality, smart dedicated outdoor air system, thermal comfort

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Authors: Fatima Faiza Ahmed, Syed Farrukh Hussain

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The last few decades have seen a large proportion of our population bending towards e-learning technologies, starting from learning tools used in primary and elementary schools to competency based e-learning systems specifically designed for applications like finance and marketing. The huge diversity in this crowd brings about a large number of challenges for the designers of these e-learning systems, one of which is the adaptability of such systems. This paper focuses on adaptability in the learning material in an e-learning course and how artificial intelligence and the semantic web can be used as an effective tool for this purpose. The study proved that the semantic web, still a hot topic in the area of computer science can prove to be a powerful tool in designing and implementing adaptable e-learning systems.

Keywords: adaptable e-learning, HTMLParser, information extraction, semantic web

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Authors: Hend Almaseb

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Gottman proposed a model of marital conflict with three phases: Agenda-Building, Arguing, and Negotiation. Among a sample of 520 married Kuwaiti women, this study examined the relationship between these phases and the following demographic variables: Level of education, Family income, Health, Occupation, and Tribal affiliation. In addition, the study 1) investigated the marital conflict phases the participants reported having experienced or are currently experiencing and 2) identified the variables that predict one of these conflict phases. The results showed a significant relationship between the following: 1) the Agenda-Building phase and Health; 2) the Arguing phase and Family income, Occupation, and Tribal Affiliation; and 3) the Negotiation phase and Level of education. In addition, a linear regression shows a substantial correlation between the two predictor variables (Level of education and Health problems) and the Agenda Building and Negotiation phases and 5) another substantial correlation between Family income and Arguing.

Keywords: clinical social work, Kuwait, marital conflict, women

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Authors: Timothy Onyenobi

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Accidental fires and its dynamic as it relates to building compartmentation and the impact of the compartment morphology, is still an on-going area of study; especially with the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling methods. With better knowledge on this subject come better solution recommendations by fire engineers. Interviews were carried out for this study where it was identified that the response perspectives to accidental fire were different with the fire engineer providing qualitative data which is based on “what is expected in real fires” and the fire fighters provided information on “what actually obtains in real fires”. This further led to a study and analysis of two real and comprehensively instrumented fire experiments: the Open Plan Office Project by National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) USA (to study time to flashover) and the TF2000 project by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) UK (to test for conformity with Building Regulation requirements). The findings from the analysis of the experiments revealed the relative yet critical weakness of fire prediction using a CFD model (usually used by fire engineers) as well as explained the differences in response perspectives of the fire engineers and firefighters from the interview analysis.

Keywords: CFD, compartment fire, experiment, fire fighters, fire engineers

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Authors: Kyu Jin Kim, Byung Kwan Oh, Hyo Seon Park

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The seismic responses-based structural health monitoring system has been performed to prevent seismic damage. Structural seismic damage of building is caused by the instantaneous stress concentration which is related with dynamic characteristic of earthquake. Meanwhile, seismic response analysis to estimate the dynamic responses of building demands significantly high computational cost. To prevent the failure of structural members from the characteristic of the earthquake and the significantly high computational cost for seismic response analysis, this paper presents an artificial neural network (ANN) based prediction model for dynamic responses of building considering specific time length. Through the measured dynamic responses, input and output node of the ANN are formed by the length of specific time, and adopted for the training. In the model, evolutionary radial basis function neural network (ERBFNN), that radial basis function network (RBFN) is integrated with evolutionary optimization algorithm to find variables in RBF, is implemented. The effectiveness of the proposed model is verified through an analytical study applying responses from dynamic analysis for multi-degree of freedom system to training data in ERBFNN.

Keywords: structural health monitoring, dynamic response, artificial neural network, radial basis function network, genetic algorithm

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Authors: Kyung-Suk Choi, Hyung-Joon Kim

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Modular structural systems are constructed using a method that they are assembled with prefabricated unit modular frames on-site. This provides a benefit that can significantly reduce building construction time. Their structural design is usually carried out under the assumption that the load-carrying mechanism is similar to that of a traditional steel moment-resisting system. However, both systems are different in terms of beam-column connection details which may strongly influence the lateral structural behavior. Specially, the presence of access holes in a beam-column joint of a unit modular frame could cause undesirable failure during strong earthquakes. Therefore, this study carried out finite element analyses (FEM) of unit modular frames to investigate the cyclic behavior of beam-column joints with the structural influence of access holes. Analysis results show that the unit modular frames present stable cyclic response with large deformation capacities, and their joints are classified into semi-rigid connections.

Keywords: unit modular frame, steel moment connection, nonlinear analytical model, moment-rotation relation

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Authors: Neerav Kumar, Naumaan Nayyar, Sharath Kashyap

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Most companies see an increase in the adoption of machine learning (ML) applications across internal and external-facing use cases. ML applications vend output either in batch or real-time patterns. A complete batch ML pipeline architecture comprises data sourcing, feature engineering, model training, model deployment, model output vending into a data store for downstream application. Due to unclear role expectations, we have observed that scientists specializing in building and optimizing models are investing significant efforts into building the other components of the architecture, which we do not believe is the best use of scientists’ bandwidth. We propose a system architecture created using AWS services that bring industry best practices to managing the workflow and simplifies the process of model deployment and end-to-end data integration for an ML application. This narrows down the scope of scientists’ work to model building and refinement while specialized data engineers take over the deployment, pipeline orchestration, data quality, data permission system, etc. The pipeline infrastructure is built and deployed as code (using terraform, cdk, cloudformation, etc.) which makes it easy to replicate and/or extend the architecture to other models that are used in an organization.

Keywords: data pipeline, machine learning, AWS, architecture, batch machine learning

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Authors: Julian Dario Castro Cifuentes

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In Colombia, the armed conflict has lasted for more than sixty years bringing poverty, internal displacement of people, deaths from both government and insurgent forces and other violence-related problems that has damaged its social fabric. In 2016, the peace process between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels brought the possibility of ending this war and a new set of challenges to Colombian society in order to achieve pacific coexistence and reconciliation. In this scenario, there have been different efforts from diverse social actors in order to build peace and reconciliation mainly within the victims of the armed conflict. In the case of music, there have been multiple programs for social transformation through music and pedagogical experiences. Nevertheless, the need to strengthen this initiative by giving ‘peace building oriented’ pedagogical tools to the musicians that lead this experiences and understanding which aspects make this practices ‘musically meaningful’, has been recognized. For this reason, the purpose of this study is to discuss the convergences and divergences of music, and educational experiences applied to peacebuilding in the context of Colombia’s post-conflict. In this research, the hermeneutic phenomenology paradigm is applied in a case study of a peace building music education experience in the department of Nariño, Colombia articulated with the program ‘Manos a la Paz’. Two particular experiences, one on musical practice and another on music education are taken as a unit of analysis to understand its essence and structure in order to find ways to articulate efforts in peace building actions from music. This study shows how the existent gap between music experience and its subjacent pedagogical knowledge, can be reduced through deconstruction of the music and pedagogical experience. The ‘Manos a la Paz’ program showed how a peace building approach to music education can make major contributions to Pacific Coexistence and Reconciliation in Colombia’s Post-Conflict.

Keywords: music education, music for peace, music pedagogy, peace building, social fabric

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Authors: Gideon C. Joseph

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The ability to localize mobile devices is quite important, as some applications may require location information of these devices to operate or deliver better services to the users. Although there are several ways of acquiring location data of mobile devices, the WLAN fingerprinting approach has been considered in this work. This approach uses the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) measurement as a function of the position of the mobile device. RSSI is a quantitative technique of describing the radio frequency power carried by a signal. RSSI may be used to determine RF link quality and is very useful in dense traffic scenarios where interference is of major concern, for example, indoor environments. This research aims to design a system that can predict the location of a mobile device, when supplied with the mobile’s RSSIs. The developed system takes as input the RSSIs relating to the mobile device, and outputs parameters that describe the location of the device such as the longitude, latitude, floor, and building. The relationship between the Received Signal Strengths (RSSs) of mobile devices and their corresponding locations is meant to be modelled; hence, subsequent locations of mobile devices can be predicted using the developed model. It is obvious that describing mathematical relationships between the RSSIs measurements and localization parameters is one option to modelling the problem, but the complexity of such an approach is a serious turn-off. In contrast, we propose an intelligent system that can learn the mapping of such RSSIs measurements to the localization parameters to be predicted. The system is capable of upgrading its performance as more experiential knowledge is acquired. The most appealing consideration to using such a system for this task is that complicated mathematical analysis and theoretical frameworks are excluded or not needed; the intelligent system on its own learns the underlying relationship in the supplied data (RSSI levels) that corresponds to the localization parameters. These localization parameters to be predicted are of two different tasks: Longitude and latitude of mobile devices are real values (regression problem), while the floor and building of the mobile devices are of integer values or categorical (classification problem). This research work presents artificial neural network based intelligent systems to model the relationship between the RSSIs predictors and the mobile device localization parameters. The designed systems were trained and validated on the collected WLAN fingerprint database. The trained networks were then tested with another supplied database to obtain the performance of trained systems on achieved Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and error rates for the regression and classification tasks involved therein.

Keywords: indoor localization, WLAN fingerprinting, neural networks, classification, regression

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Authors: Paul Kipchumba

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Kenya is an East African Country lying at the Equator. It had a population of 46 million in 2015 with an annual growth rate of 2.7%, making a population of at least 65 million in 2030. Kenya’s GDP in 2015 was about 63 billion USD with per capita GDP of about 1400 USD. The rural population is 74%, whereas urban population is 26%. Kenya grapples with not only access to energy but also with energy security. There is direct correlation between economic growth, population growth, and energy consumption. Kenya’s energy composition is at least 74.5% from renewable energy with hydro power and geothermal forming the bulk of it; 68% from wood fuel; 22% from petroleum; 9% from electricity; and 1% from coal and other sources. Wood fuel is used by majority of rural and poor urban population. Electricity is mostly used for lighting. As of March 2015 Kenya had installed electricity capacity of 2295 MW, making a per capital electricity consumption of 0.0499 KW. The overall retail cost of electricity in 2015 was 0.009915 USD/ KWh (KES 19.85/ KWh), for installed capacity over 10MW. The actual demand for electricity in 2015 was 3400 MW and the projected demand in 2030 is 18000 MW. Kenya is working on vision 2030 that aims at making it a prosperous middle income economy and targets 23 GW of generated electricity. However, cost and non-cost factors affect generation and consumption of electricity in Kenya. Kenya does not care more about CO2 emissions than on economic growth. Carbon emissions are most likely to be paid by future costs of carbon emissions and penalties imposed on local generating companies by sheer disregard of international law on C02 emissions and climate change. The study methodology was a simulated application of carbon tax on all carbon emitting sources of electricity generation. It should cost only USD 30/tCO2 tax on all emitting sources of electricity generation to have solar as the only source of electricity generation in Kenya. The country has the best evenly distributed global horizontal irradiation. Solar potential after accounting for technology efficiencies such as 14-16% for solar PV and 15-22% for solar thermal is 143.94 GW. Therefore, the paper recommends adoption of solar power for generating all electricity in Kenya in order to attain zero carbon electricity generation in the country.

Keywords: co2 emissions, cost factors, electricity generation, non-cost factors

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Authors: Suyeon Bae, Abimbola Asojo, Denise Guerin, Caren Martin

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Post-occupancy evaluations (POEs) have been recognized for documenting occupant well-being and responses to indoor environmental quality (IEQ) factors such as thermal, lighting, and acoustic conditions. Sustainable Post-Occupancy evaluation survey (SPOES) developed by an interdisciplinary team at a Midwest University provides an evidence-based quantitative analysis of occupants’ satisfaction in office, classroom, and residential spaces to help direct attention to successful areas and areas that need improvement in buildings. SPOES is a self-administered and Internet-based questionnaire completed by building occupants. In this study, employees in three different office buildings rated their satisfaction on a Likert-type scale about 12 IEQ criteria including thermal condition, indoor air quality, acoustic quality, daylighting, electric lighting, privacy, view conditions, furnishings, appearance, cleaning and maintenance, vibration and movement, and technology. Employees rated their level of satisfaction on a Likert-type scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 7 (very satisfied). They also rate the influence of their physical environment on their perception of their work performance and the impact of their primary workspaces on their health on a scale from 1 (hinders) to 7 (enhances). Building A is a three-story building that includes private and group offices, classrooms, and conference rooms and amounted to 55,000 square-feet for primary workplace (N=75). Building B, a six-story building, consisted of private offices, shared enclosed office, workstations, and open desk areas for employees and amounted to 14,193 square-feet (N=75). Building C is a three-story 56,000 square-feet building that included classrooms, therapy rooms, an outdoor playground, gym, restrooms, and training rooms for clinicians (N=76). The results indicated that 10 IEQs for Building A except acoustic quality and privacy showed statistically significant correlations on the impact of the primary workspace on health. In Building B, 11 IEQs except technology showed statistically significant correlations on the impact of the primary workspace on health. Building C had statistically significant correlations between all 12 IEQ and the employees’ perception of the impact of their primary workspace on their health in two-tailed correlations (P ≤ 0.05). Out of 33 statistically significant correlations, 25 correlations (76%) showed at least moderate relationship (r ≥ 0.35). For the three buildings, daylighting, furnishings, and indoor air quality IEQs ranked highest on the impact on health. IEQs about vibration and movement, view condition, and electric lighting ranked second, followed by IEQs about cleaning and maintenance and appearance. These results imply that 12 IEQs developed in SPOES are highly related to employees’ perception of how their primary workplaces impact their health. The IEQs in this study offer an opportunity for improving occupants’ well-being and the built environment.

Keywords: post-occupancy evaluation, built environment, sustainability, well-being, indoor air quality

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