Canadian Standards Research Articles

Seismic demand of moderately ductile reinforced concrete shear walls subjected to high-frequency ground motions

A parametric study was performed to examine the seismic behaviour of moderately ductile (MD) reinforced concrete shear walls designed according to Canadian code provisions, including National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) 2010 and Canadian Standards Association (CSA) 23.3-04, when subjected to typical high-frequency eastern North America earthquakes. The numerical models were experimentally validated based on large specimens shaking table test results. The results obtained following the code response spectrum procedure were compared with the results from inelastic response history analyses to investigate the effect of higher modes on seismic force demands. The results indicate that current code provisions for MD shear walls need to be modified. A new base shear factor and shear force design envelop are proposed to evaluate the seismic shear force demand more realistically. This study also recommends that the current CSA 23.3-04 requirements for ductile shear walls for bending moments could be applied to constrain the location of inelastic flexural deformations at the base of MD shear walls.

A comparison of avian habitat in forest management plans produced under three different certification systems in Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACTConsiderable discussion and theoretical reviews of forest certification systems have been published that outline the potential impact of forest certification on biodiversity and wildlife habitat. Three common approaches to forest certification used in Canada include the Forest Stewardship Council, the Canadian Standards Association, and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. In this study, I reviewed forest management plans in Ontario, Canada, and compared the plans' potential impact on habitat for 6 species of birds that use mature and older forests: pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), ruby‐crowned kinglet (Regulus calendula), boreal chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus), black‐backed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus), great gray owl (Strix nebulosa), and red‐breasted nuthatch (Sitta canadensis). The purpose was to determine whether the different certification systems in use resulted in different impacts on avian habitat, and to compare certified forest management plans with plans prepared for un‐certified forest units. Based on 27 Forest Management Plans in Ontario, there seems to be little reason to believe that certified forests are more likely to protect and conserve habitat for these 6 bird species that use older forests than are forests that are not certified. © 2014 The Wildlife Society.

Application of Canadian Standards Association guidelines for geologic storage of CO2 toward the development of a monitoring, verification, and accounting plan for a potential CCS project at Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada

Abstract The feasibility of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at the Fort Nelson Gas Plant in British Columbia, Canada, has been conducted. The feasibility study included the collection of baseline characterization data, static and dynamic modelling efforts, two rounds of risk assessment, and the development of a draft monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA) plan. Those activities have been compared to the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standard for geologic storage of carbon dioxide. Although the remote location, difficult terrain, and extreme climate of the potential injection site make MVA challenging, cost- effective MVA that meets or surpasses the CSA standards is achievable.

Taking the Next Step in Harmonization: Key Changes in IEEE 515-2011

Since its initial publication in 1983, IEEE 515 has been the primary industrial trace heating standard in the United States and the basis for many other international industrial trace heating standards. With the overall objective of one worldwide standard for industry, the goals of the revised IEEE P515 were to incorporate technical updates and further harmonize with international industrial trace heating standards. The two industrial trace heating standards considered were International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 60079-30-1 and -2 [1], [2] and Canadian Standards Association (CSA) 130-03 [3]. This article presents the key changes in IEEE 515-2011 [4], the process used for harmonization, and the rationale for the additions and changes.

Eurocodes and Their Implications for Bridge Design: Background, Implementation, and Comparison to North American Practice

Eurocodes and Their Implications for Bridge Design: Background, Implementation, and Comparison to North American Practice

Variability of mechanical properties of basalt fiber reinforced polymer bars manufactured by wet-layup method

Basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) bars were produced with basalt fiber that was made from igneous basalt rock. These bars were produced by adopting a new type of automated wet lay-up process for potential use as internal reinforcement of concrete. While the determination of mechanical properties of BFRP is an important first step, statistical investigation of the variability of mechanical properties is critical both for determining guaranteed properties and the quality control of production. The objective of this study was to determine the variability of mechanical properties of BFRP bars in order to verify the usefulness of the new process. Statistical analysis techniques were applied to investigate the variation and distribution of the data set obtained from tensile tests of BFRP bars. The results of Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K–S) tests revealed the data to be normally distributed meeting a confidence level of 99.875%. This would make it possible to determine the guaranteed properties based on the American Concrete Institute (ACI 440.1R) and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA S806) approaches. The study revealed that the BFRP bars manufactured by using the new automated wet-layup process had variation similar to that of FRP bars manufactured by other methods. However, this process has economic benefit relative to the traditional pultrusion method due its simplicity and cost effectiveness resulting from less stringent production controls.

Under Pressure: Engineering Is a Part of Life for Kotb [WIE from Around the World

Madiha Kotb is head of the Pressure Vessels Technical Services Division for Regie du batiment du Qu?bec, a board established by the Qu?bec government to ensure the quality and safety of buildings and systems, including safety programs within the field of pressure vessels. Kotb has also been recently elected as president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for a oneyear term, which began in July 2013. Kotb is the 132nd president of ASME and the fourth woman to lead the engineering organization. She is a recipient of the ASME Dedicated Service Award and the Canadian Standards Association Award of Merit for her contribution to the development of Canadian nuclear standards.

Foreign–trained medical professionals: Wanted or not? A case study of Canada

Foreign–trained medical professionals: Wanted or not? A case study of Canada

Concrete Shear Strength of Normal and Lightweight Concrete Beams Reinforced with FRP Bars

AbstractA new equation to predict the contribution of concrete to the shear strength of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforced concrete beams without shear reinforcement is proposed. The new equation considers the elastic modulus ratio of the FRP bars to the steel reinforcement, the shear span to depth ratio, and the flexural reinforcement ratio, and was developed using the results of 60 concrete beam tests. The proposed equation more accurately predicted the results of various experiments available in the literature than the equations of an American Concrete Institute standard, and yielded similar degrees to the equations of a Canadian Standards Association standard, despite making somewhat higher predictions. The applicability of the proposed equation to FRP reinforced lightweight concrete beams was investigated using 24 all-lightweight concrete beam tests. The concrete shear strengths of the FRP reinforced all-lightweight concrete beams were equivalent to 75% of the strengths predicted by the propos...

The Diabetes Educator Role in Canada: A National Survey

Diabetes Educators (DE) play an essential role in providing diabetes self-management education and support to individuals. The aim of the study is to describe the DE role in Canada. This study was a cross-sectional survey, and comprised the development of the Diabetes Educator Questionnaire (DEQ). Using Canadian and International diabetes education standards, the DEQ assessed structures, process and outcome components of the DE role. Educators were contacted through the Diabetes Educator Section Chapters of the Canadian Diabetes Association. A total of 290 DE responded, comprising mostly females (95%), registered dietitians (RD) (46%), registered nurses (RN) (42%), and included pharmacists (PH) (9%) and other (3%). The total mean age was 45.4 years (SD +11.2), and the average amount of diabetes experience was 12.6 years (SD + 9.9). For structure outcomes, RN and PH reported their role comprised mostly patient education and diabetes management, whereas RD reported patient education and administration. For process outcomes, RN were more likely to assess activity, monitoring and medications; RD were most likely to assess healthy eating; and PH were most likely to assess medications. Finally, RN and PH rated clinical outcomes as more relevant to their role, whereas RD rated knowledge outcomes. The study findings are self-reported and the sample size was dependent on the response rate. Due to the anonymity of the DEQ, test-retest reliability could not be established. This study provides a description of diabetes educators in Canada, by describing role related structures, processes, and outcome components.

Comparing International Standards to North American Standards for Large Adjustable-Speed Drives

The world of legal responsibility, liability, and safety is driving the industry to have equipment built to an increasing number of standards. End users and specifiers often require adjustable-speed drives (ASDs) to be in compliance with many standards like the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), American National Standards Institute, Canadian Standards Association, Underwriters Laboratory, etc. This is done to insure that they are protected in buying products that are built to high standards. Depending on the specifier, European and/or North American standards may be referenced and required to be met. However, what is required to meet these standards is often not understood. Sometimes, the details of the standards are in conflict with each other. This paper will attempt to compare major areas of the existing standards for similarity and differences. European IEC standards will be compared to the most applicable North American standards. The goal of this paper will be to help the readers better understand what the standards mean to their plants and how they can then include standards in their specifications that will best meet their requirement, yet do so in a cost-effective manner.

Cd, Pb, and Cu in water and sediments and their bioaccumulation in freshwater fish of some lakes in Hanoi, Vietnam

The seasonal variations of Cd, Pb, and Cu in the water, sediments, and freshwater fish (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, Cirrhinus molitorella, and Oreochromis mossambicus) of four lakes in Hanoi, Vietnam, were investigated. Samples for analysis were taken four times from April 2010 to March 2011. The levels in water were lower than the Vietnamese standards, except for Pb, but they were all much higher than the Canadian standards for protection of aquatic life; in the sediments, they were higher than world average levels. Bioaccumulation of the three metals in fish was site-dependent and species-dependent, but correlations of their levels in fish to those in water and sediments were weak. Levels of Pb in fish exceeded those of the UK and the WHO standards, and the recommended values of Vietnam for human consumption. Overall, the results show that the lakes are polluted with these metals, and consumption of high quantities of fish from them may be problematic. The outcome of this research helps to establish background data for future monitoring.

Redundancy and Robustness in the Design and Evaluation of Bridges: European and North American Perspectives

In this paper, current and proposed methodologies for assessing the robustness and redundancy of bridge structures are discussed and an overview of the latest advances in research is presented along with proposals for implementation in bridge design and evaluation codes. In particular, European and North American standard codes and guidelines, including the Eurocode, AASHTO, and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), as well as some national European codes and related guidelines, are compared. Research projects, including those of the European Cooperation of Science and Technology (COST) and the U.S. National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), represent key links between research activities and the need for implementing concepts of structural redundancy and robustness into the codes. The activities undertaken by COST and NCHRP constitute attempts to synthetize, simplify, and implement theoretical concepts that have been discussed over many years. This review shows that the U.S. approach concentrates on developing tools and criteria for the numerical evaluation of the capability of a bridge structure to continue to carry load after the failure of a member, whereas the European approach, still in a more theoretical phase, lacks specific guidelines for bridges and uses available building recommendations. This paper also presents a critical assessment of the state of the art and argues that criteria implementable in future generations of bridge codes should be based on quantifiable measures of risk, which is a subject still in its very early stages of development.

The politics of recognition: critical discourse analysis of recent PLAR policies for immigrant professionals in Canada

The unprecedented transnational mobility that skilled immigrants have experienced in the global war for international talents has made foreign credential recognition a policy challenge for many countries. Under the pressure of critics, Canadian governments recently launched new initiatives to facilitate foreign qualification recognition through policy interventions. Using critical discourse analysis, this article analyses the policy orientation of two benchmark government documents concerning prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) for immigrant professionals in Canada. The analysis shows that while these initiatives claim to promote fair, timely and transparent recognition practices, they are found playing an instrumental role in reinforcing the ideals of market individualism and procedural fairness. In particular, they have established Managerialism as the mechanism to reducing recognition barriers, which has in effect served to strengthen the monopolistic power positions of the Canadian regulatory bodies to delimit valid knowledge and skills and Canadian standards. Not only are immigrants left out of the process to decide on the value of their qualifications, they have also been further objectified vis-à-vis universal Canadian occupational standards. To build a more inclusive and equitable PLAR system, this article suggests a paradigmatic shift towards recognitive justice, which will take us beyond the discourse of righteousness in debating issues of PLAR concerning foreign credentials recognition for immigrant professionals.

Should helmets be mandatory for skiers and snowboarders in Ontario?

Every year, approximately 15% of Canadians participate in snow sports. Among skiers and snowboarders, 9%–19% suffer potentially disabling injuries to the head. Case-control studies have shown that ski helmets can reduce the risk of head injury by 29%–60%. Opponents of mandatory ski helmet use have presented a series of arguments against ski helmets. However, numerous studies have demonstrated that ski helmets improve the safety of skiers and represent a benefit. Currently, there is no ski helmet legislation in Ontario. Few jurisdictions have legislation mandating the use of ski helmets. In Canada, only Nova Scotia has legislation regarding the use of ski helmets. In Canada, there are no mandatory safety standards for the manufacturing of ski helmets despite the publication of standards by the Canadian Standards Association in 2008.

High Standards

This article discusses recent updates to standard codes for elevator safety and operation. This article gives a look at today’s ASME A17.1-2010/CSA B44-10, Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators. The standard jointly developed by ASME and the Canadian Standards Association shows how the original 1921 safety code has developed through the years. It now includes requirements for escalators and moving walkways as well as software and hardware requirements that did not exist 90 years ago. A group of organizations spearheaded by ASME held a symposium in December 2010 to look into elevator use during high-rise evacuations, which was a continuation of the earlier work started after 2001. Committee members spoke to experts on human factors and human conditioning when writing the requirements. The new provisions may better serve designers, manufacturers, contractors, and operators of wind turbine tower elevators by providing added confidence and consistency in the design and operation of such equipment, according to an ASME statement.

Seismic Performance Parameter Quantification of Shear-Critical Reinforced Concrete Masonry Squat Walls

AbstractIn North America, the design of reinforced masonry (RM) shear walls as a seismic force-resisting system (SFRS) is very conservative in terms of quantifying the wall’s shear strength and ductility capacity. In the current study, eight full-scale squat RM walls were tested at McMaster University under quasi-static reversed cyclic loading to quantify their shear strength, idealized displacement ductility, drift-damage relationships, lateral stiffness degradation, and hysteretic damping. The test walls demonstrated shear-strength capacities up to 200% of those predicted by the Canadian Standards Association’s (CSA) masonry design code. In addition, the results demonstrated that the Canadian shear strength expression was, on average, 32 and 34% more conservative than the Masonry Standards Joint Committee (MSJC) and the New Zealand Standards (NZS) design codes for masonry, respectively. Moreover, the simplified modified compression field theory (SMCFT), adopted directly from the Canadian concrete design...

The Governance of Privacy Through Codes of Conduct: International Lessons for U.S. Privacy Policy

The recent White Paper on privacy from U.S. Department of Commerce encourages, the development of voluntary, enforceable privacy codes of conduct in specific industries through collaborative efforts of multi-stakeholder groups, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and a Privacy Policy Office within Department of The policy envisages a coordination of multi-stakeholder groups through a new Privacy Policy Office which would work with FTC, “to develop voluntary but enforceable codes of conduct. Compliance with such a code would serve as a safe harbor for companies facing certain complaints about their privacy practices. Privacy codes of practice have extensive histories in a number of countries outside United States. At various times, they have been adopted to anticipate privacy legislation, to supplement privacy legislation, to preempt privacy legislation, and to implement privacy legislation. This paper draws upon international experiences and interviews with chief privacy officers to offer important lessons for American policymakers about how codes of practice might best encourage privacy protection on ground.Despite obvious differences, Canadian policy experience may be especially instructive. Private sector regulation was originally based on a bottom-up approach through which legislation, called Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act of 2000, was based on a voluntarily negotiated standard through Canadian Standards Association (CSA). This in turn was based on existing sectoral codes of practice, of kind envisaged by U.S. Department of Commerce. What has been experience over last decade? What useful lessons can be drawn for U.S. policy? What are economic, technological, legal, and social conditions under which codes of practice might promote better privacy protection?

Networking at ESW 2013 [Standards

This issue of the magazine is dedicated to electrical safety. The author has been asked to outline some of the advancements in the standards that have resulted from the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) Electrical Safety Workshop (ESW). Over the years, the ESW has provided this networking opportunity for attendees working on better and safer ways to work for other organizations such as the Canadian Standards Association, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the International Electrotechnical Commission, and government organizations such as the US Department of Energy. The collaborative IEEE and NFPA study on arc-flash hazards not only meets at the workshop but informs the attendees of their progress each year. This is an open invitation to the members of any IEEE standards working group who feel that they would benefit having a meeting in conjunction with the ESW and opening their group's membership to ESW attendees. Please contact us through our Web site: http://sites.ieee.org/ias-esafc/ .

Block shear strength of coped beams with single-sided bolted connection

Block shear is one of the major failure modes for coped steel I-beams. While focus of previous studies on the block shear capacity of coped steel I-beam was mainly given to the connections with double clip angles, single-sided connections, which induce out-of-plane loading eccentricity, have not been adequately considered. Ten full-scale coped steel I-beam tests were conducted to examine the effects of two main test parameters, namely, out-of-plane loading eccentricity and web block aspect ratio (ratio of shear area to tension area). It was found that nine test specimens failed with tension fracture along the bottom bolt row of the web, and the remaining one failed in a whole block tear-out manner. Twisting of the web near the cope was observed for specimens with single-sided connection. More importantly, the test results showed that the out-of-plane loading eccentricity due to the single-sided connection did not have a detrimental effect on the block shear capacity of the specimens. Moreover, increasing the connection rotational stiffness could increase the block shear capacity. These effects are further discussed via a finite element analysis and a preliminary parametric study. Finally, the test results are compared with four major design standards. It is found that the Canadian Standards CAN/CSA-S16-09, which gives a test-to-predicted ratio ranged from 0.93 to 1.17, provided relatively good predictions for the specimens with single bolt line layout, while the predictions by other codes are too conservative. For those specimens with double bolt line layout, the capacities are underestimated by all the considered standards.