Common Building Research Articles

The Influence of Immediate Common Space and Building Layout on Social Interaction in Residential Apartments: A Case Study in Sulaimani

Numerous academics have demonstrated the value of immediate communal spaces in residential projects. In contemporary apartment site planning, these places are essential but sometimes ignored and categorized as leftover negative spaces rather than intentional interaction areas, diminishing the conventional forms of interpersonal communication. However, there is no proof of this relationship's causality. This study eliminates this gap and explores whether territoriality function-based building arrangement convex layouts can moderate the link between physical design and social interactions. Since culture and social interaction are closely related, what are the effects of these spaces and their layout on social interaction in Sulaimani City and other cities with similar cultural and social contexts? This study is a comparative analysis of four selected projects. They are selected according to their different building arrangement layout. This study used two methods: a physical analysis of arrangements design and a quantitative survey questionnaire, and the samples were taken from (40%) of the total selected units. Out of the 182 questionnaires randomly distributed to the households, only 156 were retrieved. The Kruskal-Wallis test by SPSS is used to analyze data. According to the findings, there are significant differences between cases. This discovery emphasizes how crucial constructive layout is in producing a convex positive social space. In conclusion, research reveals that the built environment, through convex positive building arrangements, influences social interactions indirectly by fostering territoriality and a sense of belonging, both of which positively affect social interactions.

Fault diagnosis of building electrical system based on compressed perception theory

Building electrical systems in modern buildings are increasingly playing a pivotal role in bringing people the convenience of life, at the same time, the building electrical system will inevitably fail. And the research of intelligent fault diagnosis algorithms for this field is still in its infancy. At this stage, the accuracy and reliability of fault monitoring and diagnosis of most building electrical systems are yet to be improved. Aiming at the current lack of effective diagnosis of faults in the building electrical system, this paper takes the fault situation of the electrical system in the building as the main object of research, and simulates the common building electrical faults through the comprehensive experimental platform of the building electrical, taking into account the problem of low diagnostic efficiency of the building electrical system. This paper puts forward a fault diagnostic algorithm based on the combination of compressed perception and the K-nearest neighbor algorithm, which is aimed at improving the diagnostic efficiency of building electrical system faults. The results show that the proposed fault diagnosis algorithm can not only improve the accuracy of fault classification but also shorten the time of fault classification, which greatly improves the fault diagnosis efficiency.

Laboratory investigation of the effect of using metakaolin and clay on the behaviour of recycled glass powder-based geopolymer mortars

Civil infrastructure relies on cement, a common building material. However, Portland cement production pollutes the world by consuming mineral resources and emitting carbon dioxide. Using modern, cost-effective, and eco-friendly cement materials seems necessary. One such material is geopolymer cement, also known as green cement, composed of aluminosilicate base materials and alkaline-silicate activators. In the present study, waste glass powder was utilised to provide a rich aluminosilicate base material by substituting 10%, 20%, and 30% of the metakaolin or clay with calcium carbide residue as an alkaline activator. The samples were processed under two distinct temperature conditions: natural environment and thermal processing at 80 °C in an autoclave. The mechanical and microstructural properties of the mortars were evaluated regarding compressive strength, bending strength, setting time, volume control, and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The results indicate that the type and amount of glass powder alternatives significantly determine the final sample strength. Substituting 10% metakaolin and 20% clay for glass powder maximises compressive strength. The optimal bending strength of geopolymer samples was obtained by substituting 10% clay with 10% metakaolin. SEM images validate this discovery by exhibiting a more compact and cohesive arrangement. Additionally, the processing conditions of geopolymer samples significantly influence the mechanical properties of geopolymer mortars. The results of the V-cut test indicate that geopolymeric mortars are sluggish and require additional time to reach their primary and secondary strength. This study suggests that geopolymers could produce environmentally friendly concrete by reducing cement use and advancing economic and environmental goals.

Investigating the relationship between math literacy and linguistic synchrony in online mathematical discussions through large‐scale data analytics

AbstractPrevious literature has associated math literacy with linguistic factors such as verbal ability and phonological skills. However, few studies have investigated linguistic synchrony, shown in mathematical discussions. This study modelled math literacy and examined the relationship of math literacy with linguistic synchrony between students and facilitators. We retrieved data from 20,776 online mathematical discussion threads at a secondary school level. First, we assessed students' math literacy based on their discussions and classified them into high‐ and low‐math literacy groups. Then, we conducted Cross‐Recurrence Quantification Analysis (CRQA) to calculate linguistic synchrony within each thread. The result implies that students with high math literacy are more likely to share common words (eg, mathematical terms) with facilitators. At the same time, they would paraphrase the facilitators' words rather than blindly mimic them as the exact sentences or phrases. On the other hand, students with low math literacy tend to use overlapping words with facilitators less frequently and are more likely to repeat the exact same phrases from the facilitators. The findings provide an empirical data analysis and insights into mathematical discussions and linguistic synchrony. In addition, this paper implies the directions to improve online mathematical discussions and foster math literacy. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Mathematical discussions are known to be an effective way to promote math literacy. Math literacy and linguistic skills have a strong link. Linguistic synchrony is related to better collaboration and common knowledge building. What this paper adds Reveals the relationship between math literacy and linguistic synchrony and deepens the understanding of digital communication in online learning environments. Provides empirical analysis of natural language data in group discussions using CRQA. Conceptualizes linguistic synchrony with three sub‐concepts: linguistic concurrence, predictability, and complexity. Implications for practice and/or policy Educators and practitioners could utilize the automatic formative assessment of math literacy based on the student's language use in mathematical discussions. Educational technology researchers and designers could include CRQA indices and recurrence plots in the dashboard design to provide information to support teachers and learners. Teachers would be able to provide real‐time interventions to promote effective mathematical communication and foster math literacy throughout mathematical discussions.

The Fundamental Disorder Unit in (Si, P)-(O, N) Networks.

This study presents the synthesis and characterization of oxonitridosilicate phosphates Sr3SiP3O2N7, Sr5Si2P4ON12, and Sr16Si9P9O7N33 as the first of their kind. These compounds were synthesized under high-temperature (1400 °C) and high-pressure (3 GPa) conditions. A unique structural feature is their common fundamental building unit, a vierer single chain of (Si, P)(O, N)4 tetrahedra. All tetrahedra comprise substitutional disorder which is why we refer to it as the fundamental disorder unit (FDU). We classified four different FDU motifs, revealing systematic bonding patterns. Including literature known Sr5Si2P6N16, three of the four patterns were found in the presented compounds. Common techniques like single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD), elemental analyses, and 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy were utilized for structural analysis. Additionally, low-cost crystallographic calculations (LCC) provided insights into the structure of Sr16Si9P9O7N33 where NMR data were unavailable due to the lack of bulk samples. The optical properties of these compounds, when doped with Eu2+, were investigated using photoluminescence excitation (PLE), photoluminescence (PL) measurements, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Factors influencing the emission properties, including thermal quenching mechanisms, were discussed. This research reveals the new class of oxonitridosilicate phosphates with unique systematic structural features that offer potential for theoretical studies of luminescence and band gap tuning in insulators.

The Fundamental Disorder Unit in (Si, P)−(O, N) Networks

AbstractThis study presents the synthesis and characterization of oxonitridosilicate phosphates Sr3SiP3O2N7, Sr5Si2P4ON12, and Sr16Si9P9O7N33 as the first of their kind. These compounds were synthesized under high‐temperature (1400 °C) and high‐pressure (3 GPa) conditions. A unique structural feature is their common fundamental building unit, a vierer single chain of (Si, P)(O, N)4 tetrahedra. All tetrahedra comprise substitutional disorder which is why we refer to it as the fundamental disorder unit (FDU). We classified four different FDU motifs, revealing systematic bonding patterns. Including literature known Sr5Si2P6N16, three of the four patterns were found in the presented compounds. Common techniques like single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction (SCXRD), elemental analyses, and 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy were utilized for structural analysis. Additionally, low‐cost crystallographic calculations (LCC) provided insights into the structure of Sr16Si9P9O7N33 where NMR data were unavailable due to the lack of bulk samples. The optical properties of these compounds, when doped with Eu2+, were investigated using photoluminescence excitation (PLE), photoluminescence (PL) measurements, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Factors influencing the emission properties, including thermal quenching mechanisms, were discussed. This research reveals the new class of oxonitridosilicate phosphates with unique systematic structural features that offer potential for theoretical studies of luminescence and band gap tuning in insulators.

New Coal Char-Based Building Products: Manufacturing, Engineering Performance, and Techno-Economic Analysis for the USA Market

Common building products, i.e., thin brick and stone veneer, add the look of brick walls or the enduring charm of natural stones into buildings and houses without imposing a substantial increase in structural load. This study investigates the mechanical strength, durability, and economic feasibility of producing innovative char-based thin bricks and stone veneers. The char-based thin brick vacuum treated with hydrophobic liquid exhibits water absorption rates within the 4–7% range, displays durability against 50 freeze–thaw (F-T) cycles, and maintains a saturation coefficient below 0.6. In contrast, commercial thin bricks have water absorption of 9–12%. Treated char-based stone veneer has water absorption of 5.3% and an average compressive strength of 19.2 MPa, maintains its structural integrity throughout 50 F-T cycles, and exhibits a negligible linear shrinkage of approximately 0.01%. In contrast, commercial stone veneers have water absorption of 10–16%. These engineering properties meet the criteria as per ASTM standards C1088 and C1670 for thin brick and stone veneer, respectively. A techno-economic study was preliminarily conducted to examine the potential cost efficiency and cash flow in manufacturing these char-based building products. The manufacturing cost of USD 25.83 is lower than the average market price of 64.65 USD/sq. m. for thin bricks. The manufacturing cost of USD 32.65 is lower than the average market price of 129.17 USD/sq. m. for stone veneers. These comparisons present a compelling economic advantage for their commercialization. This comprehensive study has demonstrated the advantages of sustainable char-based stone veneers and thin bricks regarding engineering performance and economic benefits.

Optimization in Territorial Partitioning to Improve the Performance of a Common Building Maintenance Service Contract: A Case Study of a Public Agency in Paraná State, Brazil

All public administration contracts must be evaluated in order to improve their performance while respecting the limits established by laws and regulations. The purpose of this article is to apply an approach to improve the performance of a common building maintenance service contract for the Paraná State Court of Justice (PRCJ), which has a total built area of ​​544 283,79 m² in 224 buildings distributed over 161 counties, by optimizing the territorial partitioning of Paraná State. To partition the state into 14 regions, a binary integer linear programming (BILP) mathematical model is applied to the facilities location problem (FLP) in three scenarios. The results show that Scenario 3 (in which the location of the 14 maintenance offices and the configuration of their areas of activity were optimized) is the best in terms of minimizing the distances traveled by maintenance teams. In this scenario, the total distance traveled would be 9 775 km per day (instead of the current 11 150 km), achieving savings of around 12,3% when compared to the current solution. With this solution, in addition to the distance, the direct and indirect costs associated with the displacement of work teams and the time spent on their corresponding trips would be minimized. Furthermore, the users of maintenance services could be served more quickly, resulting in a higher number of services and greater satisfaction for the target audience of the contract.

Make Way for the Wind—Promoting Urban Wind Corridor Planning by Integrating RS, GIS, and CFD in Urban Planning and Design to Mitigate the Heat Island Effect

Under the trend in climate change, global warming, and the increasingly serious urban heat island effect, promoting urban wind corridor planning to reduce urban temperature and mitigate the effect of urban heat islands has received widespread attention in many cities. With emerging awareness of the need to explicitly incorporate climate considerations into urban planning and design, integrating current spatial analysis and simulation tools to enhance urban wind corridor planning to obtain the best urban ventilation effect has become an increasingly important research topic in green city development. However, how to systematically carry out urban wind corridor planning by employing related technology and simulation tools is a topic that needs to be explored urgently in both theory and practice. Taking Zhumadian City in China as an example, this study proposes a method and planning approach that uses remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS), and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in an integrated way to understand urban landscape and to conduct urban wind corridor planning. The research results reveal that the urban form of Zhumadian City favors the development of urban wind corridors, and that the railway lines and some major roads in the city have the potential to be developed as the city’s main wind corridors. However, there are still ventilation barriers resulting from the existing land use model and building layout patterns that need to be adjusted. In terms of local-level analysis, the CFD simulation analysis also reveals that some common building layout patterns may result in environments with poor ventilation. Finally, based on the results of our empirical analysis and local planning environment, specific suggestions are provided on how to develop appropriate strategies for urban wind corridor planning and adjustments related to land use planning and building layout patterns in order to mitigate the impact of the urban heat island effect.

Exploring the combinatorial explosion of amine–acid reaction space via graph editing

Amines and carboxylic acids are abundant chemical feedstocks that are nearly exclusively united via the amide coupling reaction. The disproportionate use of the amide coupling leaves a large section of unexplored reaction space between amines and acids: two of the most common chemical building blocks. Herein we conduct a thorough exploration of amine–acid reaction space via systematic enumeration of reactions involving a simple amine–carboxylic acid pair. This approach to chemical space exploration investigates the coarse and fine modulation of physicochemical properties and molecular shapes. With the invention of reaction methods becoming increasingly automated and bringing conceptual reactions into reality, our map provides an entirely new axis of chemical space exploration for rational property design.

Data Driven PMV-Comfort and Energy Consumption Control in Common Buildings

HVAC systems are essential in the energy management of commercial buildings. The main goal for HVAC system is to improve productivity of the inhabitants by providing comfortable indoor environment. The most common tool for evaluating comfort is PMV index, non-linear combination of indoor environment state variables. The Paper considers optimization of energy consumption of the building by combining state space expansion and microgrid approach.

Diagnosing Human Trafficking Victims: A Mini-Review and Perspective

The global campaign against human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons, has gained much momentum in the past two decades. Although psychiatric and physical illness sequela of human trafficking are well documented, the research community continues to struggle over such foundational questions as what specific activities or experiences count as trafficking-in-persons victimization and how best to obtain representable and generalizable data on experiences of people who are trafficked. We provide a brief review of major efforts to define trafficking in persons to establish prevalence estimates to date. We argue for consensus on key clinical and public health indicators, resembling the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) approach to enable common and systematic knowledge building and comparability across studies.

Resistance of natural stone masonry wallettes under centred and eccentric compressive loading: Experimental and numerical approaches

Masonry walls are typically subjected to eccentric compressive loadings in common buildings. However, the design of walls towards this type of solicitation remains very empirical, often leading to oversizing the structure. This is especially true for natural stone masonry, for which experimental data are quite scarce. This paper presents an experimental campaign on 15 natural stone masonry wallettes subjected to centred and eccentric compression until failure. Different values of the eccentricity of the load, ranging from h/12 to h/4 (where h is the thickness of the wallette) were investigated, highlighting the noticeable effect of such a value on the compressive failure load. During the tests, the displacements were recorded by a Digital Image Correlation system, providing insights into the different failure mechanisms that depend on the value of the eccentricity. The so-obtained experimental failure loads are then compared to the predictions of Eurocode 6. Finally, a finite-element yield-design analysis of these tests is proposed which shows that this modelling framework is suitable to find the ultimate bearing capacity of a masonry wallette.

Sustaining Building Construction Technologists Self-Employment Through Competency Based Training

The study determined competency based training as a practical tool for sustainable self-emploment of building construction technologists in Enugu state. Two research questions were answered and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population for the study was 115 practicing building construction technologists. Instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire. Two experts validated the instrument for data collection. The internal consistency of the instrument items was determined by the use of Cronbach alpha reliability method and 0.84 reliability coefficient was obtained. The data generated were analyzed using mean to answer research questions while t-test was used to test the hypotheses. Findings revealed that competency based training have the potentials to foster and sustain self-employment of building construction technologists. It can sustain self-employment of building construction technologists by equipping them with common building construction competencies such as in-depth knowledge of construction practice, building drawing and interpretation competencies, building performance analytical competency and, determination of building materials behaviours among others. It was recommended that strong partnership between training institutes and dynamic building construction industries should be encouraged. This partnership would provide an environment for students to interact with experts such that, up-to-date competencies that meets labour needs would be transmitted to participating learners.

Effect of mPCMs on the properties of whisker-reinforced PG-based composites

Phase-change energy-storage building materials prepared by applying phase-change materials (PCMs) to building materials have the advantages of both common building materials and PCMs. The composites can help regulate the indoor temperature, while the introduction of phase-change microcapsule (mPCM) technology can make up for the shortcomings of traditional PCMs. Therefore, in this study, two different mPCMs were blended into whisker-reinforced β-hemihydrate phosphogypsum (β-HPG)-based composites to prepare a new lightweight thermal insulation and energy-storage building material, which improves the thermal performance of the building material while improving the utilization rate of phosphogypsum to a certain extent. In this study, the mechanical, thermal conductivity and energy-storage properties of the new building material were investigated through performance tests and compared with those of β-HPG-based composites without doped PCMs, The results showed that both PCMs could improve the mechanical strength of the materials. The incorporation of mPCMs increased the thermal conductivity and decreased the water absorption of the composites. In addition, the thermogravimetric–differential scanning calorimetry analysis showed that the addition of mPCMs improved the thermal storage properties of the composites, and the two mPCMs and their composites have good thermal stability and can be used in construction materials.

Research on Concrete Compressive Strength Detection Technology Based on Intelligent Machine Vision

Abstract Concrete is the most common and important building material nowadays. Its compressive strength plays a crucial role in the result and safety of the building. To improve the efficiency of concrete compressive strength detection, this study combines intelligent machine vision technology to design a concrete compressive strength detection system. The features of concrete are extracted using the edge detection method. Then the extracted features are classified using the random forest method to complete the identification and localization of concrete. Based on this basis, the compressive strength of concrete is calculated and detected based on the conversion relationship between uniaxial compressive strength and point load strength. Finally, after testing the performance of the system, the practical effects of the system are examined. According to the results, the system’s detection rate is between 0.058 and 0.072 seconds, and the recognition accuracy and classification accuracy of the four different types of concrete detection exceed 80%. The relative error values for the detected compressive strength were 5.87% and 3.52%, respectively, and they passed the compressive strength detection of retardation diagrams in complex situations. The excellent performance of this study in real concrete detection meets the demand for concrete compressive detection in reality.

The ALICE Grid Workflow for LHC Run 3

The ALICE Grid Workflow for LHC Run 3

Effect of curing conditions and formulation on the adhesive strength of stone-siporex mortar composite

Background: Adhesive strength is one of the most important properties of the hardened mortar, and influenced by mortar workability (i.e. mortar water content), and substrate roughness surface degree. Objective: This study aims to measure the adhesion strength between three different hydrated aerial lime mortars, and the two most common building units in old and modern building in Loire valley in France: Tuffeau and Siporex, under different relative humidity (12,66,98%) and curing periods (7,28,90 days). Materials and Methods: These mortars include: B/F (1:5.6: Moisture=46 %, aggregate stone powder pass sieve NO.2mm), B/W (1:5.6: Moisture=44 %, aggregate stone powder pass sieveNO.2mm and retained on sieve NO. 0.16mm), and B/F/M (1:5.6: Moisture=35%: superplasticizer water reducer Melment F10 (2.5% of lime amount), aggregate stone powder pass sieve NO.2mm). Numerous complementary techniques have been used to achieve this study, such as: x-ray diffraction, coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, mercury intrusion porosimetry, mortars axial expansion by consolidation apparatus, and Proceq-DY-215 apparatus for adhesive strength measurement. Results: The results showed that expansion of B/F, B/W, and B/F/M has little effect on their adhesion strength with Tuffeau /Siporex substrates. Also, the adopted relative humidity variations had a limited effect on the adhesion strength of B/W along the curing periods (7, 28, and 90 days), with noticeable effect for the other mortars. Conclusions: The conclusions referred to the important impact of the degree of substrate surface roughness on the adhesive strength of all used mortars, where the use of Siporex as substrate recorded a clear advantage compared to Tuffeau under all used relative humidity and curing periods.

Influence of elevated temperature on waste concrete powder and its application in alkali activated materials

Concrete has been a common building material widely used for decades to build the infrastructure. As a results, considerable amount of waste concrete is produced which is hazardous to the environment. At present, recycling waste concrete is limited to the aggregates for non-structural applications. The low reactivity of waste concrete powder (WCP) limits its use as a binder. Therefore, this study is conducted to enhance the reactivity of WCP to increase its viability as an alkali activated binder. The study was conducted in two phases. In Phase I, the WCP was thermally treated at temperatures ranging between 600 °C and 800 °C and the impact of this calcination on the physiochemical characteristics of thermally treated waste concrete powder (TWCP) was studied. The phase transformation after calcination was analyzed by observing the properties of WCP and TWCP using scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques. The physical changes were also studied by comparing the density, specific surface area and particle size distribution in WCP and TWCP. It was found that the thermal treatment of WCP resulted in the decomposition of several phases along with a change in quartz structure. Also with temperature increase, the increase in density and particles fineness was observed, which was significant when thermal treatment was performed at 800 °C. The alkali activated WCP and TWCP was prepared to explore the microstructure and strength. The reactivity and strength of TWCP was superior to that of WCP. However, the highest strength obtained after alkali activation of TWCP was less than 10 MPa which is not optimal for a primary binder. Therefore, in Phase II of this study, the performance of TWCP in a binary cement-based mortar was explored by blending it with 0–50 wt% ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) and the series of experiments including compressive strength, flexural strength and drying shrinkage was carried out to characterize the properties of composites. The superior strength and improved drying shrinkage obtained by mortars comprising TWCP-800 were due to the combination of filler effects and increased reactivity. No significant change in the properties of mortar containing 10 wt% TWCP-800 was observed. Study reveals that the thermal treatment of WCP at 800 °C is optimal and a sustainable approach to producing a supplementary binder for alkali activated materials.

Scene Understanding for Dimensional Compliance Checks in Mixed-Reality

Building inspections are critical for ensuring compliance with construction standards, but conventional methods, often manual, face challenges in efficiency and consistency due to heavy reliance on human factors. Mixed-reality (MR) solutions could potentially address these challenges as they reportedly achieve good efficiency and accuracy in mapping indoor environments. This research investigates the potential of utilizing a wearable MR device to perform dimensional checks through edge computing of device sensor data, reducing the reliance on human factors. The accuracy of MR-computed dimensions against ground truth data for common building elements was assessed. Results indicate that MR-computed dimensions align well with ground truth for simple objects, but complex objects such as staircases presented limitations in achieving satisfactory results. If-then checks applied to MR-computed dimensions for automated detection of non-compliance were successfully experimented. However, automating compliance checks for standards with complex rules requires further investigation. This research sheds light on the potential of MR solutions for building inspections and highlights future research directions to enhance its applicability and effectiveness in the construction industry.