Brick Buildings Research Articles

Análise de manifestações patológicas. Três estudos de caso / Analysis of building pathologies. Three case studies

Masonry buildings are the main part of the Architectural heritage in the World. The need of preservation for the historical memory, together with the exigence of fruition and use, has evidenced the need of appropriate analysis tools. In general, the stresses in masonry structures are usually considerably lower than those required for their material failure, so that the stability is mainly due to their shape and self weight. These aspects allowed in the past the simple realization of construction models in a reduced scale in order to assess the stability. As the history has pointed out, the behaviour of constructions is strongly linked to the workmanship and the good realization of the construction details. Local or global collapse can occur in fact due to pathologies arising during the construction or to bad realization of construction details. This paper deals with this last aspect, examining three different masonry buildings: the first one is a brick masonry building in Bologna: San Barbaziano Church, the others are two Roman domus in two different archaelogical sites in Campania: Villa Regina (Boscoreale, Napoli) and Villa dei Misteri (Pompeii, Napoli). The defects have been divided into two classes: structural defects and non structural ones. It is shown that structural defects can cause a global damage and could involve significant interventions.

Modelling and Evaluation of the Seismic Capacity of Typical Brick URM Buildings of the Historical Center of Cuenca- Ecuador

The Historic Center of Cuenca (HCC) is located in the southern region of Ecuador. It is well known that our country is located on the so-called belt of fire of the Pacific Ocean, this area is characterized by having generated the most important seismic events in the history of mankind. More specifically, there are records that show that in the last 200 years the city of Cuenca has been exposed to earthquakes that have produced moderate to severe damage. These reasons make it possible to establish that the city of Cuenca and specifically its historic center could present important problems in the face of significant seismic events. Most of the buildings in the HCC date back to the middle of the 20th century and have used unreinforced brick masonry (brick-URM) to build their walls. This work is part of the Seismic Vulnerability Project: Seismic Damage Scenarios of the Built Heritage of the Historic Center of Cuenca. In the context of this vulnerability project, the objective of this work was to establish a family of pushover curves for three unreinforced brick masonry buildings typical of the HCC, based on a parametric pushover analysis. The definition of the typical buildings was based on an extensive work of architectural and geometric characterization of the traditional built heritage of HCC. On the basis of focusing the study on two-story buildings (the most common), the size of the floor area of the buildings (small, medium and large area) was assumed as a base parameter. Based on an analysis of the variability of different geometric and mechanical characteristics, and in order to study their influence on the pushover curves of the three typical brick URM buildings, the following study parameters were defined: 1) compressive strength of brick masonry, 2) lateral displacement capacity of brick-URM elements, 3) wall thickness. The pushover analysis was carried out with the Ruaumoko program. The model of the buildings responds to an equivalent portal frame macro-model scheme that has been formulated and validated by the authors of this paper. In order to consider the effects of the flexible floor on the dynamic response of this type of structures, a lateral load pattern that takes into account the contribution of higher order modes of vibration will be used in pushover analysis. The results will be discussed in terms of the incidence of the variability of the study parameters on the basic characteristics of the pushover curves. These results will be an essential input for the next stage of the project consisting of damage estimation for different levels of seismic action expected in the city.

Energy consumption in intermittently heated residential buildings: Light Steel Framing vs hollow brick masonry constructive system

The hollow brick masonry and reinforced concrete construction is the most common and technically known constructive system in southern European countries. However, more industrialised alternatives have arisen, such as the Light Steel Framing (LSF). Nevertheless, an important research gap concerning the performance of this constructive system and its comparison with the brick masonry buildings was found. The shortage of available experimental data hinders the optimisation of these buildings towards high energy efficiency standards and indoor comfort. In this sense, the primary aim of this research is to assess the opportunities and limitations of each constructive system in terms of minimising energy consumption and providing a comfortable indoor environment during the heating season, considering an intermittent heating pattern. The novelty of the present work is the long-term experimental campaign involving the construction and monitoring of two identical test cells, differing only in the constructive system. The test cells are located in the Aveiro district (Portugal) and were monitored over an entire year. The results revealed a lower energy consumption of LSF test cell in every monitored month. On the other hand, this test cell is more responsive to the external weather stimulus and, therefore, more susceptible to the nocturnal temperature drop and overheating during warmer conditions. The present work intends to achieve a long-term value by providing the scientific community with original data within a research scope where this information is not abundant.

Ecological Aspects of the Detached House Construction

The article deals with the ecological impacts during a detached house construction and looks for the optimal way of its financing. The aim of the article is to evaluate how much the house construction costs would increase in the case of the use of materials, which production generates smaller volume of negative emissions. The issue of the environment in relation to ecological construction has been widely discussed in recent years. The construction industry burdens the environment already by the production of building materials, extraction of raw materials, energy consumption, through designing activities and construction itself, to the phase of the building use and its eventual liquidation. There are six basic requirements for building materials used in construction, which are required for the quality environmentally friendly construction: the statics and stability of buildings must be provided, noise protection, fire safety, hygienic safety and reduced environmental impact must be met, buildings must provide safe use and well-being, and last but not least energy efficiency. Already in the structure construction phase, it is necessary to consider the appropriate selection of building materials, for which it is necessary to take into account ecological criteria. Appropriate selection of building materials results in a positive effect on the environment. When optimizing the total cost of building a detached house from an ecological point of view, the procedure consists in replacing the most cost-effective items in the construction budget by alternative materials with regard to ecology. When choosing alternative materials, maintaining the standard of the brick building and the aesthetic character of the house are taken into account. When comparing the budgets of both variants, it was found out that a detached house built using alternative, more environmentally friendly materials, resulted more expensive. However, the price difference is slight. Own housing can be financed in several ways. One option is to use your resources. However, this method is currently unrealistic for most people, and therefore they often choose the option of combining their resources with external sources. The most commonly used products for housing financing are building savings loans and mortgage loans. Another possibility is to use subsidy programmes for housing to finance the house, which are often focused on supporting ecological construction and housing.

The effect of rising damp on heat transfer performance and energy consumption of two kinds of Chinese blue-brick masonry walls

Rising damp is common in brick buildings due to groundwater and natural precipitation, which not only causes deterioration of the walls, but also significantly affects the heat transfer coefficient, thermal inertia, and building energy consumption. In order to clarify the effects of rising damp on the heat transfer through traditional Chinese brick solid wall and cavity walls, two types of wall of 1.2 m wide and 3 m high were built in the laboratory. The heat transfer performance under the influence of capillary rising was tested by Simple heating box – heat flow meter method. Based on the data obtained from the experiment, the Energyplus was used to simulate the energy consumption of a Chinese typical residential building influenced by rising damp. The results proposed 3.67 W/m2·K and 3.61 W/m2·K as the recommended heat transfer coefficient for the moisture affected parts in the experimental solid and cavity wall, and the rising capillary water increased the heat transfer coefficients by 74% and 84%, respectively. The heating and cooling load of the solid-wall building under the influence of capillary water increased by 18.5% and 29.6%, respectively, while of cavity-walls building increased by 6.5% and 11.8%.

Indoor Thermal Environment Challenges of Light Steel Framing in the Southern European Context

Over the past decades, Southern European residential architecture has been typically associated with heavyweight hollow brick masonry and reinforced concrete construction systems; however, more industrialised alternative systems have been gaining a significant market share, such as the light steel framing (LSF). Regardless of the proliferation of LSF buildings, a lack of experimental research studies have been performed on this construction system in terms of the indoor thermal environment and thermal comfort in the Southern European climate context. Moreover, a research gap also exists regarding experimental comparisons with typical brick masonry buildings. The present study focused on this research gap by characterising and comparing the performance of these two construction systems. A long-term experimental campaign was carried out, involving the construction and monitoring of two identical test cells, differing only by construction system. The test cells were located in Portugal and were monitored over an entire year. The results revealed that the LSF experimental test cell presented higher daily indoor air temperature fluctuations, leading to more extreme maximum and minimum values, closely following the outdoor dry bulb temperature variations. The more responsive behaviour was also reflected in the indoor thermal comfort analysis, with the LSF cell presenting slightly worse performance; however, some advantages were also observed regarding the LSF construction system, which could provide benefits during intermittent residential occupation, especially in mild climates, in which overheating is not a major concern.

DETERMINATION OF THE ASSESSMENT ON INCREASING THE SEISMOSTICITY OF BRICK LAYING OF BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES WITH DAMAGES AND DEFECTS

The article uses a method of research and determination of damage and defects ofstone structures. This method provides elimination: the presence of cracks, their length, and width ofthe opening, the presence of defects in the brickwork, the presence of erosion in the brickwork, thedisplacement of arched and arched bridges.To assess the strength of bricks and mortar in masonry, the proposed method was as follows.Places for drilling in brickwork were chosen arbitrarily along with the entire height of the masonry.Drilling was performed perpendicular to the brickwork. The number of places required for drillingcorresponded to the number of samples tested for compression, according to the normative document.To determine the performance properties of brickwork, by following per under regulations in acomplete inspection of buildings, sampling methods used a large number of studies. This problem isespecially relevant for brick buildings to the defects and damages of constructive characterestablished during the inspection which accounting by standard methods does not provide necessaryreliability.The task is complicated if the structure, under the influence of certain operational factors, therewas a change in its stress state, which cannot be estimated by calculation. The structural elementselected for inspection is responsible, which in turn will lead to the destruction of the redistributionof forces and will be dangerous, which can lead to the destruction of other elements and the collapseof the entire system of structures. In this situation, it is recommended to adopt a method that allowsyou to experimentally determine the actual level of stress of the whole element or its individual part.The method was developed primarily for old residential and public buildings (architecturalmonuments) and helps to preserve the original appearance of structures, which does not violate thearchitectural ensemble of the whole house.

RUSSIAN CIVILIZATION: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORTHODOX ISOLATION AND TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT

The article is devoted to analysing the influence of Eastern orthodox isolationism on technological development of Russia. Russia was an isolated orthodox civilization and according to S. Huntington, there were civilizational splits along its borders. These were zones of constant wars between civilizations. The Orthodox Church preached religious messianism; the Orthodox Christians considered representatives of other religions to be “unholy”, strayed away from communicating with them and avoided borrowing anything from “the unholy". The Mongol invasion led to the loss of many technologies borrowed from Byzantium in the previous period; in particular, the brick building technology was lost. Although the Golden Horde constructed buildings of bricks and used cast iron and gunpowder, the Russians did not adopt these advances. This resulted in the fact that having passed the Russian grounds, metallurgical and gunpowder technologies reached Europe, and it was Europe from where they came to Russia approximately two centuries later.

Senses of Place: An Architectural Historian Before and During COVID-19

Senses of Place: An Architectural Historian Before and During COVID-19

Rear Window

Rear Window Mee Ok Icaro (bio) In Brookline, a Boston suburb so affluent you practically need a PhD to live there, a brick building sits, unremarkable in every way except for its size: it spans two full blocks and stands five stories tall. From the top floor, choppy waves of gambrel and Victorian rooftops flow out toward the hazy hills; in the distance, a few steeples stab the sky. And on the ground, a playground swings, plays tag, and scores baskets before resting for the evening, its expensive toys dreaming in the night shadows, unafraid of being stolen. From a place that may or may not be real, a piano strokes out the notes of a Dvořák sonata, and they float over the rows of stately homes with their manicured lawns and exotic vegetation. Then there's our building, expansive and manufactured, with its mummed and pansied gardens doing their best impression of a grandma's front yard. And next to the gardens, a population curious for these parts: the elderly with canes and walkers, young people in wheelchairs, and the ambulating poor, cigarettes dangling from their mouths, their faces reflecting the serenity of someone inhaling a gulp of fresh, apexed air. We are a "mixed use" Section 8 building, government housing without targeted restrictions, like being over fifty-five or having hiv. Translation: we are largely a collection of elderly Russian Jewish émigrés, disabled people, and impoverished blacks and whites, mostly ignored by our nimby, neoliberal neighbors. I am the exception: in my thirties, Korean, adopted, alone. I moved in during the summer of 2012 from the hospice floor of a nursing home to live out the rest of my days. After depleting my options with Western medicine, I turned to a hallucinogenic tea from South America that dramatically improved my health, though I still remained disabled, and I began to slowly meet people again. Three of the four black people I have known in our building were once in show business: a 1970s blaxploitation actor who only recently came out [End Page 143] of the closet, an impossibly beautiful stage actress from the 1960s, and a former backup singer for Patti LaBelle, who sends him a birthday cake every year. The fourth black neighbor is Iris. Well, black if you don't count the Irish and two Native American grandparents, one Pequot and one Narragansett. At eighty-six, she looks younger than the daughter she recently lost to drug addiction not so long ago. She herself recently gave up smoking and stopped drinking wine, but you'd never guess she had any vices, given her spry step and the delicate creases lining her face. She is the mother hen of the place, if it can be said there is one, having lived in the building for three decades—when another ninety-year-old neighbor with the ninety-year-old name of Doris first initiated affordable housing here. Born in 1933, Iris remembers having gained the right to eat in restaurants. "My mother got on the bus," she says, "to ride all the way downtown so that she could go into the Checker Smoker diner over on Dover and drink a cup of coffee at the countertop. Because, you know, we couldn't." Her hands plead to me, "We didn't have the damn money to be taking a bus!" As her arms fall to her side, she laughs and shakes her head, before becoming a daughter for a moment. "But there was no stopping Mom . . ." I often see Iris in our newly revamped common area. The downstairs lobby is as basic as it always was—a tiny mailroom and laundry room for our packages and clothes to be stolen, and a small area with a wall made of windows that feels like a waiting room. It just looks nicer now—less prison and more like a finished basement. The recent renovations sparked whispers about the building moving to private housing—and us moving out into the street. In the afternoons Iris regularly sits with two lesbian neighbors bound by companionship and separated by a generation. The younger of the two has a seeing-eye dog and...

In situ experimental evaluation of a novel modular living wall system for industrial symbiosis

The emerging concept of Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is becoming an important strategy to achieving goals of the circular economy paradigm shift. In this interdisciplinary study between academia and the industry, large and consistent volumes of predictably sized waste prompt sheet metals obtained from standard stamping and blanking processes at the automotive industry during production of automobile bodies were used to design and fabricate planters in a custom-designed modular living wall system (MLWS) which was installed as a retrofit on an existing building façade. This study is the second part of an attempt to foster IS between the automotive and building and construction industries through creative architectural reuse of these automotive by-products and waste-flows for more sustainable MLWS. Experimental data from field observations of a case study were used to calibrate 24-hour simulations of four seasons in ENVI-met. Life cycle analyses were carried out using Tally a Revit plug-in and United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Waste Reduction Model. Results showed that the MLWS has a promising cooling effect on the brick building façade when compared to bare brick surface. Applying reuse strategy in IS could reduce heat islands, greenhouse gas emissions and energy from conventional recycling practices of prompt metal.

Strategies for Structural and Energy Improvement in Mid-Rise Unreinforced Masonry Apartment Buildings. A Case Study in Mestre (Northeast Italy)

Two-thirds of the Italian building stock was already built by the 1970s, largely according to gravity load design and using economical materials and poor workmanship. Currently, the structures, fixtures, and fittings of these buildings have reached the end of their service life, and they require both an assessment and an update to meet new standards and new needs. As an example of a common type, this article deals with the assessment of the present state and the proposal of an integrated structural and architectural intervention on an existing brick masonry mid-rise apartment building in the suburbs of Venice, Northern Italy. The structural analysis highlights a moderate vulnerability, despite the low seismic hazard, and the energy analysis indicates that the highest management costs are due to heating and sanitary uses. Low-impact strategies are preferred for each aspect of the required interventions. Their costs are counterbalanced by (a) the reduction to a fifth of the present management costs; (b) a 20% average increase in the economic value of the flats; and (c) a favorable tax regime at the national level. Transformed into parametric values, also useful for large scale analyses, these costs resulted in a sustainable monthly instalment from the owners, who may also benefit from the increased quality of the place where they live.

Experimental testing and comparison between historical and traditional masonry brick

The historical masonry brick buildings are important structural symbols due to their old construction time. It is necessary to investigate the mechanical properties of the masonry brick building to evaluate the structural behaviour during service life. Here, the research focused on finding out the compressive strength of brick unit, mortar and brick prism model. Two types of mortar and brick unit are adopted, historical and traditional, and the comparison between the results is implemented. The historical brick and mortar used experimentally in this study were taken from the Imam Ali holy shrine structure (built 300 year before) during its rehabilitation. The traditional brick is Iranian yellow brick which is used in repairing process of two minarets now. The traditional mortar is the Iraqi gypsum which is available in the local market. The tests of mortar cubes and brick units are conducted according to Iraqi Standards and the British Standards is adopted for brick prism models. The experimental testing is carried out in the lab of faculty of engineering at university of kufa. The strain gauges and LVDT instruments are used with the acquisition system device to record and save data. The results of compressive strength and mass density for historical and traditional brick unit and mortar are exhibited. Also, the results of compressive strength, stress-strain curve, load-displacement curve and modulus of elasticity for historical and traditional brick prism models are displayed and discussed. In addition, the compressive strength of brick prism models using empirical equation are estimated. The comparison between the results of historical and traditional brick units, gypsum mortar types and brick prism models are carried out. The historical brick prism model has mechanical properties weaker than the traditional and there is a difference in the compressive strength of the historical brick prism model between the empirical equation and testing results.

Stress-strain state finite element modeling of concrete foundation along the concrete pile perimeter of a multistory brick building

The use of concrete foundations on a natural subgrade of brick buildings with a spatial cross-wall structural system can lead to its ultimate limit and elastoplastic states along the perimeter and, as a consequence, unallowable soil deformation and movement. The paper proposes to eliminate ultimate limit and elastoplastic states along the perimeter of concrete piles through the replacement of the foundation slab by the combined piled-raft foundation. The finite element modeling of the stress-strain state of the concrete foundation and the building superstructure of the base-foundation-building system is performed in the MicroFe software package allowing to appropriately estimate this state in real geotechnical conditions. According to calculations, 46 % of the vertical load of the building is taken by concrete piles along the perimeter, and 54 % of this load is taken by the concrete foundation. The use of the combined piled-raft foundation allows eliminating unallowable soil deformation of the foundation and provides meeting the standard requirements.

Seismic Retrofitting of Persian Arched Walls by Centercore Method: Experimental and Numerical Investigation

ABSTRACT The majority of the existing historical brick masonry buildings and monuments in Iran were built adopting a structural system made of modularly connected Persian arched walls; two piers connected by an arc-shaped spandrel. Previous earthquakes revealed that these structures are highly vulnerable and seismic rehabilitation of them is of great significance. However, architectural character and cultural value of these monumental structures significantly rely on the appearance of the building and its decorative finishing. Thus, any retrofitting method modifying the appearance of the building is unacceptable. During the last decades, centercore strengthening method has been developed for seismic rehabilitation of these structures. This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation on the in-plane behavior of Persian arched walls, before and after retrofitting by centercore method. For this purpose, using fired clay bricks and gypsum-clay mortar, three arched walls were built and tested under reversed cyclic in-plane loading. The results showed a significant increase in the ultimate lateral resistance and improvement of seismic performance indices including ductility and energy dissipation. Moreover, a three-dimensional nonlinear finite element model using a combined approach of smeared cracks and discrete elements was adopted to investigate the monotonic in-plane behavior of the retrofitted arched walls.

Changing perceptions of the Qing Dynasty in the Late Joseon Dynasty and Chinese style architecture that emerged in Joseon in the 18th century

ABSTRACT This study examines changing perceptions of China’s Qing Dynasty within the Joseon Dynasty, focusing on Chinese-style buildings during the late Joseon period (18th-19th). Until the mid-18th century, Joseon views of the Qing Empire were dominated by the northern expedition. These perceptions began to change when yeonhaengsa introduced Qing Dynasty culture to Joseon society. Some progressive Joseon thinkers promoted the Bukhak theory, arguing that Joseon should proactively adopt Qing and Western culture via the Qing Empire. During cultural exchanges with Qing scholars, Joseon intellectuals developed an interest in China’s advanced architectural technology, including its construction techniques, use of wagons, and ondol system. The Bukhak scholars were particularly impressed with brick, which they endeavored to promote throughout Joseon. First, Park Jiwon (朴趾源, 1737–1805) built brick Chinese-style buildings in Anui, Gyeongsang Province and Gyedong, Seoul at the end of the 18th century. After the construction of the Suwon Hwaseong Fortress, architectural experiments influenced by Qing culture began to appear in various fields in Joseon. The Chinese architecture introduced to Joseon by Silhak scholars can be understood as an adoption of a foreign culture. This architecture helped Joseon acclimatize to foreign influences before the full-scale introduction of Western modern architecture, following the opening of the port in the late 19th century.

Impact of retrofitting work on vulnerability reduction of local buildings in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Rapid urbanisation of Afghan cities without proper construction regulation has exposed their population to a high risk of damage from disasters such as earthquakes. With the growing construction of local non-engineered buildings and an existing level of hazard of 0.8 g, a high risk of casualties and building damage threatens Kabul in the event of a disaster. This study reports and evaluates a recent retrofitting project in Kabul City by ‘Project for City Resilience’, carried out under the supervision of the United Nation Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) for 48 retrofitted sun-dried clay brick masonry buildings in Kabul. The project was executed by local masons and welders who were trained as a part of the project, and the main tasks included installation of an additional steel frame, additional reinforced concrete foundation ring, ceiling replacement and wall strengthening (via mesh and plaster). After a visual assessment of retrofitted buildings considering the original retrofitting design and actual work done, a vulnerability index for retrofitted buildings was developed based on a behaviour modifier factor, which was assigned to each retrofitting activity using a combination of values and a proportion of scores for each retrofitting activity. The results indicate that training of local masons and welders to undertake retrofitting activities could decrease the damage ratio by 15% – 20% for peak ground acceleration values of 0.3 g and higher. The methods mentioned in this study can be used to make existing sun-dried clay brick masonry buildings sufficiently resistant to earthquakes of moderate-to-severe intensity.

Experimental Study on the Compressive Behaviors of Brick Masonry Strengthened with Modified Oyster Shell Ash Mortar

Masonry bricks were widely used in construction of the walls in most of Chinese historical buildings. The low strength of lime–clay mortar used in existing historical brick masonry walls has usually led to poor performance such as cracking and collapse during earthquakes. As the composition of modified oyster shell ash mortar (MOSA mortar) with higher strength is similar to that of lime–clay mortar, it can be used to partially replace original lime–clay mortar for historical brick masonry buildings in order to improve their seismic performance. Previous research has proven that this strengthening method for brick masonry is effective in improving shear strength. In this paper, we present further experimental research regarding the compressive behaviors of brick masonry strengthened by replacing mortar with a MOSA mortar. The test results showed that the compressive strength of brick masonry specimens strengthened by the proposed method meets the design requirements. The formula for calculating compressive strength for brick masonry strengthened by replacing mortar was obtained by fitting the test results. The calculated values were consistent with the tested ones. In addition, the stress–strain relationship of tested specimens under axial compression was simulated using the parabolic model.

From the Editor

From the Editor

The Impact of COVID-19-Prompted Virtual/Remote Work Environments on Employees’ Career Development: Social Learning Theory, Belongingness, and Self-Empowerment

The Problem The COVID-19 pandemic caused many workers to move from brick and mortar buildings to virtual/remote environments. This created situations in which workers were forced to not only work virtually, but to work alone. The lack of physical contact with others has the potential to stifle efforts to remain engaged and consequently impede career development and progress. The Solution Virtual mentoring is essential for providing emotional support, creating opportunities for dialogue, helping employees discover a balance between work and life, implementing a reward system, and enhancing an overall sense of well-being and belongingness for employees working in virtual/remote environments. Self-efficacy, a component of social learning theory, is a useful concept to study virtual/remote workers who often become self-empowered and rely on their own cognitive abilities to perform in a virtual/remote environment to ensure successful career outcomes. The Stakeholders HRD professionals, managers, supervisors, and others involved in ensuring that workers are engaged, supported, and continuously building skills while working virtually.