Search results for: Building floor structures

Authors: Muhammad Azzam Ismail, Fahanim Abdul Rashid, Deo Prasad

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Green home rating has emerged as an important agenda to practice the principles of sustainability. In Malaysia, the establishment of the 'Green Building Index ' Residential New Construction- (GBI-RNC) has brought this agenda closer to the stakeholders of the local green building industry. GBI-RNC focuses on the evaluation of the environmental impacts posed by houses rather than assessing the Triple-Bottom-Line (TBL) of Sustainability which also include socio-economic factors. Therefore, as part of a wider study, a survey was conducted to gather the backgrounds of green building stakeholders in Malaysia and their responses to a number of exploratory questions regarding the setting up of a framework to rate green homes against the TBL. This paper reports the findings from Section A and B from this survey and discusses them accordingly with a conclusion that forms part of the basis for a new generation green home rating framework specifically for use in Malaysia.

Keywords: Green home rating, Malaysia, stakeholder surveyanalysis

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Authors: Zamri Noranai, Mohammad Zainal Md Yusof

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Sustainable energy usage has been recognized as one of the important measure to increase the competitiveness of the nation globally. Many strong emphases were given in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (RMK9) to improve energy efficient especially to government buildings. With this in view, a project to investigate the potential of energy saving in selected building in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) was carried out. In this project, a case study involving electric energy consumption of the academic staff office building was conducted. The scope of the study include to identify energy consumption in a selected building, to study energy saving opportunities, to analyse cost investment in term of economic and to identify users attitude with respect to energy usage. The MS1525:2001, Malaysian Standard -Code of practice on energy efficiency and use of renewable energy for non-residential buildings was used as reference. Several energy efficient measures were considered and their merits and priority were compared. Improving human behavior can reduce energy consumption by 6% while technical measure can reduce energy consumption by 44%. Two economic analysis evaluation methods were applied; they are the payback period method and net present value method.

Keywords: office building, energy, efficiency, economic analyses

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Authors: Chien-Yeh Hsu, Yuan-Ching Chiang, Zi-Jie Chien, Sih-Li Chen

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In this study, a field experiment and performance analysis of air-tunnel heat exchanger integrated with water-filled raft foundation of residential building were performed. In order to obtain better performance, conventional applications of air-tunnel inevitably have high initial cost or issues about insufficient installation space. To improve the feasibility of air tunnel heat exchanger in high-density housing, an integrated system consisting of air pipes immersed in the water-filled raft foundation was presented, taking advantage of immense amount of water and relatively stable temperature in raft foundation of building. The foundation-integrated air tunnel was applied to a residential building located in Yilan, Taiwan, and its thermal performance was measured in the field experiment. The results indicated that the cooling potential of integrated system was close to the potential of soil-based EAHE at 2 m depth or deeper. An analytical model based on thermal resistance method was validated by measurement results, and was used to carry out the dimensioning of foundation-integrated air tunnel. The discrepancies between calculated value and measured data were less than 2.7%. In addition, the return-on-investment with regard to thermal performance and economics of the application was evaluated. Because the installation for air tunnel is scheduled in the building foundation construction, the utilization of integrated system spends less construction cost compare to the conventional earth-air tunnel.

Keywords: Air tunnel, ground heat exchanger, raft foundation, residential building.

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Authors: Yadgar Tayfur, Antony Darby, Tim Ibell, Mark Evernden, John Orr

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Fabric form-work is a technique to cast concrete structures with a great advantage of saving concrete material of up to 40%. This technique is particularly associated with the optimized concrete structures that usually have smaller cross-section dimensions than equivalent prismatic members. However, this can make the structural system produced from these members prone to smaller serviceability safety margins. Therefore, it is very important to understand the serviceability issue of non-prismatic concrete structures. In this paper, an analytical computer-based model to optimize concrete beams and to predict load-deflection behaviour of both prismatic and non-prismatic concrete beams is presented. The model was developed based on the method of sectional analysis and integration of curvatures. Results from the analytical model were compared to load-deflection behaviour of a number of beams with different geometric and material properties from other researchers. The results of the comparison show that the analytical program can accurately predict the load-deflection response of concrete beams with medium reinforcement ratios. However, it over-estimates deflection values for lightly reinforced specimens. Finally, the analytical program acceptably predicted load-deflection behaviour of on-prismatic concrete beams.

Keywords: Concrete beams, deflections, fabric formwork, optimisation, serviceability.

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Authors: Kawecki J., Kowalska-Koczwara A., Stypula K.

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The increasing influence of traffic on building objects and people residing in them should be taken into account in diagnosis and design. Users of buildings expect that vibrations occurring in their environment, will not only lead to damage to the building or its accelerated wear, but neither would affect the required comfort in rooms designed to accommodate people. This article describes the methods and principles useful in designing and building diagnostics located near transportation routes, with particular emphasis on the impact of traffic vibration on people in buildings. It also describes the procedures used in obtaining information about the parameters of vibrations in different cases of diagnostics and design. A universal algorithm of procedure in diagnostics and design of buildings taking into account assurance of human vibration comfort of people residing in the these buildings was presented.

Keywords: diagnostics, influence of public transport, influence of vibrations on humans, transport vibrations

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Authors: Ghaleb Y. Abbasi, Sufyan Al-Mrayat

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This study examined the contribution of 36 factors to building construction project’s cost overrun in Jordan. A questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 350 stakeholders comprised of owners, consultants, and contractors, of which 285 responded. SPSS analysis was conducted to identify the top five causes of cost overrun, which were a large number of variation orders, inadequate quantities provided in the contract, misunderstanding of the project plan, incomplete bid documents, and choosing the lowest price in the contract bidding. There was an agreement among the study participants in ranking the factors contributing to cost overrun, which indicated that these factors were very commonly encountered in most construction projects in Jordan. Thus, it is crucial to enhance the collaboration among the different project stakeholders to understand the project’s objectives and set a realistic plan that takes into consideration all the factors that might influence the project cost, which might eventually prevent cost overrun.

Keywords: Cost, overrun, building construction projects, Jordan.

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Authors: Christiono Utomo, Arazi Idrus, Isnanto, Annisa Nugraheni, Farida Rahmawati

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A Negotiation Support is required on a value-based decision to enable each stakeholder to evaluate and rank the solution alternatives before engaging into negotiation with the other stakeholders. This study demonstrates a process of negotiation support model for selection of a building system from value-based design perspective. The perspective is based on comparison of function and cost of a building system. Multi criteria decision techniques were applied to determine the relative value of the alternative solutions for performing the function. A satisfying option game theory are applied to the criteria of value-based decision which are LCC (life cycle cost) and function based FAST. The results demonstrate a negotiation process to select priorities of a building system. The support model can be extended to an automated negotiation by combining value based decision method, group decision and negotiation support.

Keywords: NSS, Value-based, Decision, Construction.

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Authors: Ludovic Favre, Thibaut M. Schafer, Jean-Luc Robyr, Elena-Lavinia Niederhäuser

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This paper presents an optimization method based on genetic algorithm for the energy management inside buildings developed in the frame of the project Smart Living Lab (SLL) in Fribourg (Switzerland). This algorithm optimizes the interaction between renewable energy production, storage systems and energy consumers. In comparison with standard algorithms, the innovative aspect of this project is the extension of the smart regulation over three simultaneous criteria: the energy self-consumption, the decrease of greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs. The genetic algorithm approach was chosen due to the large quantity of optimization variables and the non-linearity of the optimization function. The optimization process includes also real time data of the building as well as weather forecast and users habits. This information is used by a physical model of the building energy resources to predict the future energy production and needs, to select the best energetic strategy, to combine production or storage of energy in order to guarantee the demand of electrical and thermal energy. The principle of operation of the algorithm as well as typical output example of the algorithm is presented.

Keywords: Building’s energy, control system, energy management, modelling, genetic optimization algorithm, renewable energy, greenhouse gases, energy storage.

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Authors: M. Kashiripoor

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Existing indicators for sustainable urban development do not identify the features of cities’ planning structures and their architecture. Iranian city has special relevance problem of assessing the conformity of their planning and development of the concept of sustainable development. Based on theoretical sources, the author concludes that, despite the existence of common indicators for sustainable development of settlements, specialized evaluation criteria city structure planning has not been developed. He is trying to fill this gap and put forward a system of indicators characterizing the level of development of the architectural-planning structure of the city. The proposed system of indicators is designed based on technical and economic urban standard indicators from different countries. Alternative designing systems and requirements of modern rating systems like LEED-ND comprise a criterion for evaluation of urban structures in accordance with principles of "Green" building and New Urbanism. Urban development trends are close in spirit of sustainable development and developed under its influence. The study allowed concluding that a system of indicators to identify the relevant architectural-planning structure of the city, requirements of sustainable development, should be adapted to the conditions of each country, particularly in Iran. The article attempts typology proposed indicators, which are presented in tabular form and are divided into two types: planning and spatial. This article discusses the known indicators of sustainable development and proposed specific system of indicators characterizing the level of development of architectural-planning structure of the city. This article examines indicators for evaluating level of city' planning structure development. The proposed system of indicators is derived from the urban planning standards and rating systems such as LEED-ND, BREEAM Community and CASBEE-UD.

Keywords: Architectural-planning structure of cities, urban planning indicators, urban space indicators.

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Authors: Xuan Sun, Mingbo Tong

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To understand the factors which affect impact damage on composite structures, particularly the effects of impact position and ribs. In this paper, a finite element model (FEM) of low-velocity impact damage on the composite structure was established via the nonlinear finite element method, combined with the user-defined materials subroutine (VUMAT) of the ABAQUS software. The structural elements chosen for the investigation comprised a series of stiffened composite panels, representative of real aircraft structure. By impacting the panels at different positions relative to the ribs, the effect of relative position of ribs was found out. Then the simulation results and the experiments data were compared. Finally, the factors which affect impact damage on the structures were discussed. The paper was helpful for the design of stiffened composite structures.

Keywords: Stiffened, Low-velocity, Impact, Abaqus, Impact Energy.

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Authors: Sergio Pissanetzky

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The ability of the brain to organize information and generate the functional structures we use to act, think and communicate, is a common and easily observable natural phenomenon. In object-oriented analysis, these structures are represented by objects. Objects have been extensively studied and documented, but the process that creates them is not understood. In this work, a new class of discrete, deterministic, dissipative, host-guest dynamical systems is introduced. The new systems have extraordinary self-organizing properties. They can host information representing other physical systems and generate the same functional structures as the brain does. A simple mathematical model is proposed. The new systems are easy to simulate by computer, and measurements needed to confirm the assumptions are abundant and readily available. Experimental results presented here confirm the findings. Applications are many, but among the most immediate are object-oriented engineering, image and voice recognition, search engines, and Neuroscience.

Keywords: AI, artificial intelligence, complex system, object oriented, OO, refactoring.

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Authors: Hema Sandhya Jagarlamudi, Mousumi Saha, Pavan Kumar Jagarlamudi

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The use of Quantum dots is a promising emerging Technology for implementing digital system at the nano level. It is effecient for attractive features such as faster speed , smaller size and low power consumption than transistor technology. In this paper, various Combinational and sequential logical structures - HALF ADDER, SR Latch and Flip-Flop, D Flip-Flop preceding NAND, NOR, XOR,XNOR are discussed based on QCA design, with comparatively less number of cells and area. By applying these layouts, the hardware requirements for a QCA design can be reduced. These structures are designed and simulated using QCA Designer Tool. By taking full advantage of the unique features of this technology, we are able to create complete circuits on a single layer of QCA. Such Devices are expected to function with ultra low power Consumption and very high speeds.

Keywords: QCA, QCA Designer, Clock, Majority Gate

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Authors: Meng-Hao Tsai, Tsuei-Chiang Huang

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Interior brick-infill partitions are usually considered as non-structural components and only their weight is accounted for in practical structural design. In this study, their effect on the progressive collapse resistance of an RC building subjected to sudden column loss is investigated. Three notional column loss conditions with four different brick-infill locations are considered. Column-loss response analyses of the RC building with and without brick infills are carried out. Analysis results indicate that the collapse resistance is only slightly influenced by the brick infills due to their brittle failure characteristic. Even so, they may help to reduce the inelastic displacement response under column loss. For practical engineering, it is reasonably conservative to only consider the weight of brick-infill partitions in the structural analysis.

Keywords: Progressive collapse, column loss, brick-infill partition, compression strut.

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Authors: Mohamed A. Azab

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Over the early years of the 21st century, cities throughout the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf region have expanded more rapidly than ever before. Given the presence of a large volume of high-rise buildings allover the region, the local authority aims to set a new standard for sustainable development; with an integrated approach to maintain a balance between economy, quality, environmental protection and safety of life. In the very near future, as mandatory requirements, sustainability will be the criteria that should be included in all building projects. It is well known in the building sustainability topics that structural design engineers do not have a key role in this matter. In addition, the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) has looked almost exclusively on the environmental components and materials specifications. The objective of this paper is to focus and establish groundwork for sustainability techniques and applications related to the RC high-rise buildings design, from the structural point of view. A set of recommendations related to local conditions, structural modeling and analysis is given, and some helpful suggestions for structural design team work are addressed. This paper attempts to help structural engineers in identifying the building sustainability design, in order to meet local needs and achieve alternative solutions at an early stage of project design.

Keywords: Building, Design, High-rise, Middle East, Structural, Sustainability.

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Authors: Mahdi Nouri

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In this paper we introduce an efficient solution method for the Eigen-decomposition of bisymmetric and per symmetric matrices of symmetric structures. Here we decompose adjacency and Laplacian matrices of symmetric structures to submatrices with low dimension for fast and easy calculation of eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Examples are included to show the efficiency of the method.

Keywords: Graphs theory, Eigensolution, adjacency and Laplacian matrix, Canonical forms, bisymmetric, per symmetric.

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Authors: P. V. S. Mascarenhas, B. C. P. Albuquerque, D. J. F. Campos, L. L. Almeida, V. R. Domingues, L. C. S. M. Ozelim

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Retaining slope structures are increasingly considered in geotechnical engineering projects due to extensive urban cities growth. These kinds of engineering constructions may present instabilities over the time and may require reinforcement or even rebuilding of the structure. In this context, statistical analysis is an important tool for decision making regarding retaining structures. This study approaches the failure probability of the construction of a retaining wall over the debris of an old and collapsed one. The new solution’s extension length will be of approximately 350 m and will be located over the margins of the Lake Paranoá, Brasilia, in the capital of Brazil. The building process must also account for the utilization of the ruins as a caisson. A series of in situ and laboratory experiments defined local soil strength parameters. A Standard Penetration Test (SPT) defined the in situ soil stratigraphy. Also, the parameters obtained were verified using soil data from a collection of masters and doctoral works from the University of Brasília, which is similar to the local soil. Initial studies show that the concrete wall is the proper solution for this case, taking into account the technical, economic and deterministic analysis. On the other hand, in order to better analyze the statistical significance of the factor-of-safety factors obtained, a Monte Carlo analysis was performed for the concrete wall and two more initial solutions. A comparison between the statistical and risk results generated for the different solutions indicated that a Gabion solution would better fit the financial and technical feasibility of the project.

Keywords: Economical analysis, probability of failure, retaining walls, statistical analysis.

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Authors: Ridha Salhi, Mondher Labidi, Fethi Choubani

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Metamaterials have attracted much attention in recent years because of their electromagnetic exquisite proprieties. We will present, in this paper, the modeling of three metamaterial structures by equivalent circuit model. We begin by modeling the SRR (Split Ring Resonator), then we model the HIS (High Impedance Surfaces), and finally, we present the model of the CPW (Coplanar Wave Guide). In order to validate models, we compare the results obtained by an equivalent circuit models with numerical simulation.

Keywords: Metamaterials, SRR, HIS, CPW, IDC.

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Authors: Guojian Cheng, Tianshi Liu, Jiaxin Han, Zheng Wang

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The competitive learning is an adaptive process in which the neurons in a neural network gradually become sensitive to different input pattern clusters. The basic idea behind the Kohonen-s Self-Organizing Feature Maps (SOFM) is competitive learning. SOFM can generate mappings from high-dimensional signal spaces to lower dimensional topological structures. The main features of this kind of mappings are topology preserving, feature mappings and probability distribution approximation of input patterns. To overcome some limitations of SOFM, e.g., a fixed number of neural units and a topology of fixed dimensionality, Growing Self-Organizing Neural Network (GSONN) can be used. GSONN can change its topological structure during learning. It grows by learning and shrinks by forgetting. To speed up the training and convergence, a new variant of GSONN, twin growing cell structures (TGCS) is presented here. This paper first gives an introduction to competitive learning, SOFM and its variants. Then, we discuss some GSONN with fixed dimensionality, which include growing cell structures, its variants and the author-s model: TGCS. It is ended with some testing results comparison and conclusions.

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, Competitive learning, Growing cell structures, Self-organizing feature maps.

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Authors: Saemee Jun, Dong-Hyeon Shin, Tae-Sang Ahn, Hyung-Joon Kim

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Building loss estimation methodologies which have been advanced considerably in recent decades are usually used to estimate socio and economic impacts resulting from seismic structural damage. In accordance with these methods, this paper presents the evaluation of an annual loss probability of a reinforced concrete moment resisting frame designed according to Korean Building Code. The annual loss probability is defined by (1) a fragility curve obtained from a capacity spectrum method which is similar to a method adopted from HAZUS, and (2) a seismic hazard curve derived from annual frequencies of exceedance per peak ground acceleration. Seismic fragilities are computed to calculate the annual loss probability of a certain structure using functions depending on structural capacity, seismic demand, structural response and the probability of exceeding damage state thresholds. This study carried out a nonlinear static analysis to obtain the capacity of a RC moment resisting frame selected as a prototype building. The analysis results show that the probability of being extensive structural damage in the prototype building is expected to 0.01% in a year.

Keywords: Expected annual loss, Loss estimation, RC structure, Fragility analysis.

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Authors: Han-Soo Kim, Jae-Gyun Ahn, Hyo-Seung Ahn

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Though nonlinear dynamic analysis using a specialized hydro-code such as AUTODYN is accurate and useful tool for progressive collapse assessment of a multi-story building subjected to blast load, it takes too much time to be applied to a practical simulation of progressive collapse of a tall building. In this paper, blast analysis of a RC frame structure using a simplified model with Reinforcement Contact technique provided in Ansys Workbench was introduced and investigated on its accuracy. Even though the simplified model has a fraction of elements of the detailed model, the simplified model with this modeling technique shows similar structural behavior under the blast load to the detailed model. The proposed modeling method can be effectively applied to blast loading progressive collapse analysis of a RC frame structure.

Keywords: Autodyn, Blast Load, Progressive Collapse, Reinforcement Contact.

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Authors: R. C. J. Mphahlele, K. Bolton, H. Kasaini

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Empirical force fields and density functional theory (DFT) was used to study the binding energies and structures of methylamine on the surface of activated carbons (ACs). This is a first step in studying the adsorption of alkyl amines on the surface of functionalized ACs. The force fields used were Dreiding (DFF), Universal (UFF) and Compass (CFF) models. The generalized gradient approximation with Perdew Wang 91 (PW91) functional was used for DFT calculations. In addition to obtaining the aminecarboxylic acid adsorption energies, the results were used to establish reliability of the empirical models for these systems. CFF predicted a binding energy of -9.227 (kcal/mol) which agreed with PW91 at - 13.17 (kcal/mol), compared to DFF 0 (kcal/mol) and UFF -0.72 (kcal/mol). However, the CFF binding energies for the amine to ester and ketone disagreed with PW91 results. The structures obtained from all models agreed with PW91 results.

Keywords: Activated Carbons, Binding energy, DFT, Force fields.

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Authors: D. Bąk-Grabowska, K. Grzesik, A. Iwanicka, A. Jagoda

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The process of human resources management in the structures of corporate groups demonstrates certain specificity, resulting from the division of decision-making and executive competencies, which occurs within these structures between a parent company and its subsidiaries. The subprocess of employee assessment is considered crucial, since it provides information for the implementation of personnel function. The empirical studies conducted in corporate groups, within which at least one company is located in Poland, confirmed the critical significance of employee assessment systems in the process of human resources management in corporate groups. Parent companies, most often, retain their decision-making authority within the framework of the discussed process and introduce uniform employee assessment and personnel controlling systems to subsidiary companies. However, the instruments for employee assessment applied in corporate groups do not present such specificity.

Keywords: Corporate groups, employee periodical assessment system, holding, human resources management.

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Authors: Talebi Aliasghar, Ebrahimpour Komeleh Hooman, Maghsoudi Ali Akbar

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In reinforced concrete (RC) structures, beam-column connection region has a considerable effect on the behavior of structures. Using fiber reinforcement polymer (FRP) for the strengthening of connections in RC structures can be one of the solutions to retrofitting this zone which result in the enhanced behavior of structure. In this paper, these changes in behavior by using FRP for high strength concrete beam-column connection have been studied by finite element modeling. The concrete damage plasticity (CDP) model has been used to analyze the RC. The results illustrated a considerable development in load-bearing capacity but also a noticeable reduction in ductility. The study also assesses these qualities for several modes of strengthening and suggests the most effective mode of strengthening. Using FRP in flexural zone and FRP with 45-degree oriented fibers in shear zone of joint showed the most significant change in behavior.

Keywords: High strength concrete, beam-column connection, FRP, FEM.

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Authors: Woo Young Jung, Bu Seog Ju

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This study described the seismic performance evaluation of bridge structures, located near Daegu metropolitan city in Korea. The structural design code or regulatory guidelines is focusing on the protection of brittle failure or collapse in bridges’ lifetime during an earthquake. This paper illustrated the procedure in terms of the safety evaluation of bridges using simple linear elastic 3D Finite Element (FE) model in ABAQUS platform. The design response spectra based on KBC 2009 were then developed, in order to understand the seismic behavior of bridge structures. Besides, the multiple directional earthquakes were applied and it revealed that the most dominated earthquake direction was transverse direction of the bridge. Also, the bridge structure under the compressive stress was more fragile than the tensile stress and the vertical direction of seismic ground motions was not significantly affected to the structural system.

Keywords: Bridge, Finite Element, 3D model, Earthquake, Spectrum.

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Authors: Sushil Kumar Swar, Sanjay Kumar Sharma, Hari Krishan Sharma, Sushil Kumar

Abstract:

The seriously damaged structures during earthquakes show the need and importance of design of reinforced concrete structures with high ductility. Reinforced concrete beam-column joints have an important function in all structures. Under seismic excitation, the beam column joint region is subjected to horizontal and vertical shear forces whose magnitude is many times higher than the adjacent beam and column. Strength and ductility of structures depends mainly on proper detailing of the reinforcement in beamcolumn joints and the old structures were found ductility deficient. DSP materials are obtained by using high quantities of super plasticizers and high volumes of micro silica. In the case of High Performance Densified Small Particle Concrete (HPDSPC), since concrete is dense even at the micro-structure level, tensile strain would be much higher than that of the conventional SFRC, SIFCON & SIMCON. This in turn will improve cracking behaviour, ductility and energy absorption capacity of composites in addition to durability. The fine fibers used in our mix are 0.3mm diameter and 10 mm which can be easily placed with high percentage. These fibers easily transfer stresses and act as a composite concrete unit to take up extremely high loads with high compressive strength. HPDSPC placed in the beam column joints helps in safety of human life due to prolonged failure.

Keywords: High Performance Densified Small Particle Concrete (HPDSPC), Steel Fıber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC), Slurry Infiltrated Concrete (SIFCON), Slurry Infiltrated Mat Concrete (SIMCON).

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Authors: Marco Morini, Nicolandrea Calabrese, Dario Chello

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Despite the international commitment of Algeria towards the development of energy efficiency and renewable energy in the country, the internal energy demand has been continuously growing during the last decade due to the substantial increase of population and of living conditions, which in turn has led to an unprecedented expansion of the residential building sector. The RTB (Thermal Building Regulation) is the technical document that establishes the calculation framework for the thermal performance of buildings in Algeria, setting up minimum obligatory targets for the thermal performance of new buildings. An update of this regulation is due in the coming years and this paper discusses some proposals in this regard, with the aim to improve the energy efficiency of the building sector, particularly with regard to social housing. In particular, it proposes a methodology for drafting an energy performance label of new Algerian residential buildings, moving from the results of the thermal compliance verification and sizing of technical systems as defined in the RTB. Such an energy performance label – whose calculation method is briefly described in the paper – aims to raise citizens' awareness of the benefits of energy efficiency. It can represent the first step in a process of integrating technical installations into the calculation of the energy performance of buildings in Algeria.

Keywords: building, energy certification, energy efficiency, social housing, international cooperation, Mediterranean Region

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Authors: S. Douss, F. Touati, M. Loulou

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A design flow of multi-standard down-conversion CMOS mixers for three modern standards: Global System Mobile, Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephone and Universal Mobile Telecommunication Systems is presented. Three active mixer-s structures are studied. The first is based on the Gilbert cell which gives a tolerable noise figure and linearity with a low conversion gain. The second and third structures use the current bleeding and charge injection techniques in order to increase the conversion gain. An improvement of about 2 dB of the conversion gain is achieved without a considerable degradation of the other characteristics. The models used for noise figure, conversion gain and IIP3 used are studied. This study describes the nature of trade-offs inherent in such structures and gives insights that help in identifying which structure is better for given conditions.

Keywords: Active mixer, Radio-frequency transceiver, Multistandardfront end, Gilbert cell, current bleeding, charge injection.

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Authors: Jamil Hijazi, Stirling Howieson

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Reducing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions are probably the greatest challenge now facing mankind. From considerations surrounding global warming and CO₂ production, it has to be recognized that oil is a finite resource and the KSA like many other oil-rich countries will have to start to consider a horizon where hydro-carbons are not the dominant energy resource. The employment of hybrid ground-cooling pipes in combination with the black body solar collection and radiant night cooling systems may have the potential to displace a significant proportion of oil currently used to run conventional air conditioning plant. This paper presents an investigation into the viability of such hybrid systems with the specific aim of reducing cooling load and carbon emissions while providing all year-round thermal comfort in a typical Saudi Arabian urban housing block. Soil temperatures were measured in the city of Jeddah. A parametric study then was carried out by computational simulation software (DesignBuilder) that utilized the field measurements and predicted the cooling energy consumption of both a base case and an ideal scenario (typical block retro-fitted with insulation, solar shading, ground pipes integrated with hypocaust floor slabs/stack ventilation and radiant cooling pipes embed in floor). Initial simulation results suggest that careful ‘ecological design’ combined with hybrid radiant and ground pipe cooling techniques can displace air conditioning systems, producing significant cost and carbon savings (both capital and running) without appreciable deprivation of amenity.

Keywords: Cooling load, energy efficiency, ground pipe cooling, hybrid cooling strategy, hydronic radiant systems, low carbon emission, passive designs, thermal comfort.

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Authors: R. K. Apalowo, D. Chronopoulos

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A Finite Element (FE) based scheme is presented for quantifying guided wave interaction with Localised Nonlinear Structural Damage (LNSD) within structures of arbitrary layering and geometric complexity. The through-thickness mode-shape of the structure is obtained through a wave and finite element method. This is applied in a time domain FE simulation in order to generate time harmonic excitation for a specific wave mode. Interaction of the wave with LNSD within the system is computed through an element activation and deactivation iteration. The scheme is validated against experimental measurements and a WFE-FE methodology for calculating wave interaction with damage. Case studies for guided wave interaction with crack and delamination are presented to verify the robustness of the proposed method in classifying and identifying damage.

Keywords: Layered Structures, nonlinear ultrasound, wave interaction with nonlinear damage, wave finite element, finite element.

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Authors: H. Juma, F. Al-hujaili, R. Kashani

Abstract:

Modern structures such as floor systems, pedestrian bridges and high-rise buildings have become lighter in mass and more flexible with negligible damping and thus prone to vibration. In this paper, a semi-actively controlled pendulum tuned mass dampers (PTMD) is presented that uses air springs as both the restoring (resilient) and energy dissipating (damping) elements; the tuned mass damper (TMD) uses no passive dampers. The proposed PTMD can readily be fine-tuned and re-tuned, via software, without changing any hardware. Almost all existing semi-active systems have the three elements that passive TMDs have, i.e., inertia, resilient, and dissipative elements with some adjustability built into one or two of these elements. The proposed semi-active air suspended TMD, on the other hand, is made up of only inertia and resilience elements. A notable feature of this TMD is the absence of a physical damping element in its make-up. The required viscous damping is introduced into the TMD using a semi-active control scheme residing in a micro-controller which actuates a high-speed proportional valve regulating the flow of air in and out of the air springs. In addition to introducing damping into the TMD, the semi-active control scheme adjusts the stiffness of the TMD. The focus of this work has been the synthesis and analysis of the control algorithms and strategies to vary the tuning accuracy, introduce damping into air suspended PTMD, and enable the PTMD to self-tune itself. The accelerations of the main structure and PTMD as well as the pressure in the air springs are used as the feedback signals in control strategies. Numerical simulation and experimental evaluation of the proposed tuned damping system are presented in this paper.

Keywords: Tuned mass damper, air spring, semi-active, vibration control.

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