Division Of Building Research Research Articles

Designing houses for the Australian climate: the early research

The design of houses to suit the Australian environment has been a preoccupation from the first day that Europeans set foot on the shores of Port Jackson. Following WWII, a scientific approach to researching the relationship between building design and the climate commenced. From then and up to the present three periods of research can be identified. This paper concentrates on the first formative period between 1945 and 1972 when the thermal performance research work in Australia was dominated by two organizations, the Department of Works, Commonwealth Experimental Building Station (CEBS) located in Ryde, Sydney, and CSIRO, Division of Building Research (DBR) situated in Highett, Melbourne. During this period, thermal performance research conducted by these organizations was recognized throughout the world for its innovation. The paper summarizes the major work undertaken and how many of the concepts that informed this work are still with us today.

Extending Prolog to Provide Better Support for Design Code Expert Systems

The CSIR03 Division of Building Research (DBR) has built a number of text‐based and graphics‐based design code expert systems in PROLOG. Each of these systems involves several thousand lines of PROLOG and stretches to the limit and the capacity of the IBM ATs on which they run. We have found PROLOG to be a very powerful language for expressing the complex rules and relationships found in building design codes and related applications. Nevertheless, it has a number of weaknesses, particularly in expressing procedural knowledge and arithmetic relationships, and in implementing complex tables and user interfaces. We have designed and implemented extensions to PROLOG to overcome these difficulties. These include new built‐in functions to perform functions that are difficult to code in PROLOG, an easy way to add further built‐in functions, a meta‐interpreter to keep track of intermediate results, sets of routines to support user input and explanation, and a definite clause grammar to implement a more syntactically pleasant language for writing rules. These extensions are being used to develop a larger and much more complete version of the WINDLOADER expert system, and have greatly facilitated this task.

How much for building research?

Suggestions about how countries might allocate resources to building research and development are often debated. Those put forward in this article from the Division of Building Research, National Research Council Canada, are not wholly new, but one of the main comments is that international comparisons can be misleading. More pertinent for national policies may be a framework to accommodate such allocations, by helping those responsible for R & D policy to answer three sets of questions: How much? On what? And by whom?

Tgaiapciimsims, A New Technique For The Study Of Pyrolysis And Combustion Products

The Fire Research Section, Division of Building Research, National Research Council of Canada has acquired a SCIEX TAGA 6000 AF'CI (atmospheric pressure chemical ionization)/MS/MS, an analytical instrument unique for its high sensitivity and high speed in analysis. The instrument is capable of monitoring simultaneously many types of gases generated in pyrolysis/combustion. Coupled with a Dupont 951 thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), it has been used for studying the pyrolysis products of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) at different stages of the pyrolysis process. A 1 mg specimen was pyrolyzed in the TGA in a stream of nitrogen or air and the products were introduced t o the APCI/MS/MS through a short glass capillary. The molecules of the product were ionized under atmospheric pressure, and analyzed in real time with three serial quadrupole mass filters . The main products were HCN, acetic acid, and a series of nitriles. The generation of each product is discussed in the light of the thermogravimetric analysis

Effect of the environment on the durability of plastic-based materials

Plastics in use are exposed to diverse environments, some of which exert a detrimental effect, resulting in overall deterioration. Studies carried out at the Division of Building Research, National Research Council Canada, on the effect of natural and artificial environments for several plastic materials have established the types of change in their properties and the mechanisms involved. Detrimental changes resulting from environmentallyinduced deterioration include chemical degradation, discoloration, surface cracking, crazing, loss of compounding ingredients (e.g., exudation, leaching), fibre release (in glass-reinforced plastic), impairment of mechanical and electrical properties, loss of gloss, reduction of light transmission, opacification and pitting and scratching.

A simple absorber for walking vibrations

One of the most effective ways of improving walking vibration in an existing long-span floor structure is to increase damping by adding one or more vibration absorbers to the floor structure. This note describes the principles involved and how to apply a simple plank absorber, based on experience with a test floor structure at the Division of Building Research, National Research Council of Canada.

New facility to determine fire resistance of columns

The new Division of Building Research (DBR) column testing furnace is described and an outline given of the proposed studies that this facility makes possible.

Lighting Controls, Patterns of Lighting Consumption, and Energy Conservation

Some of the important areas of the lighting energy conservation research program currently being carried out at the Division of Building Research, National Research Council of Canada, are described. The major emphasis of the program is to monitor present patterns and levels of lighting consumption in offices and schools and then develop and encourage cost-effective control systems to reduce the hours of use of lighting power loads. A new device to measure lighting energy consumption is described. Tine-lapse photography is being employed to obtain detailed information regarding patterns of lighting use in offices and schools. This information is used to develop cost-effective manual- and automatic- control devices. The savings measured with a daylight-linked automatic system installed in a typical office are discussed.

Triaxial-vane tests on a soft marine clay

This paper describes a triaxial-vane apparatus constructed at the Division of Building Research, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa. A series of tests was conducted on a soft marine clay from South Gloucester, Ontario. Various consolidation pressures were used to study the effect of pressure on vane strength. The test results show that the vane strength is relatively insensitive to a change in vertical consolidation pressure only, but increases steadily with increase in the all-around or horizontal consolidation pressure. This phenomenon is explained using an analysis that incorporates strength anisotropy. The practical implications resulting from this study are also discussed.

Public washrooms

The provision of public washroom facilities is usually based on requirements in various building codes, and health and labour standards. These requirements are traditional and often do not correspond to the actual usage of washrooms. Without information on the extent to which washrooms are used it is difficult, if not impossible, to make a rational decision about the number of plumbing fixtures to install in a building. As plumbing fixtures are expensive (about $2000 each including fixture, plumbing, space occupied, and finishes), the over-provision of fixtures can result in a needless waste of money. On the other hand, the underprovision of fixtures results in user dissatisfaction, and perhaps increased maintenance costs and health hazards. To enable designers to make reasonable decisions about the provision of washroom facilities and to enable the various agencies that are responsible for plumbing fixture requirements to stipulate an appropriate number of fixtures, information must be developed to describe the likelihood of various fixtures being used and the consequences of providing a certain number and arrangement of fixtures. The National Research Council's Division of Building Research has been conducting studies of washroom use over the last few years in order to provide this kind of information.

THE OPTIMIZATION OF TRADITIONAL FORMWORK CONSTRUCTION

This paper outlines an investigation into the optimization of traditional formwork construction, using an interation technique. The work was carried out, in part, at the C.S.I.R.O. Division of Building Research, Highett, Victoria, and the computing was executed on the C.S.I.R.O. 3200 C.D.C. Computer system. The original work for this paper was carried out using imperial units. However, for presentation the results have been converted directly into metric S.I.

Measuring the behaviour of expansion joints

At the Canadian Division of Building Research in Ottawa the actual movements of expansion joints were charted over a long period on two similar buildings of different heights, one with and one without air conditioning. It was found that joint movement is affected not only by temperature and the nature of the components but by the comparatively undefined restraints of the structure itself — and the movement is usually less than assumed in calculations. The experimental data were collected by C. C. Barrett.

Limit state design in Canada

Based on material prepared for CIB working commission W23, this article from the Canadian Research Council's Division of Building Research discusses the implications of the new National Building Code. This now enables the concept of limit state to be applied to structural design.

Control of smoke in high-rise buildings

Based on studies conducted by the Division of Building Research, the authors analyzed the most important factors that determine expectation of life loss from smoke in high-rise buildings.

Behavior of Circular Footings and Plate Anchors Embedded in Permafrost

The purpose of this paper is to develop a method for predicting the creep settlement and the bearing capacity of frozen soils under deep circular loads. The theory uses experimentally determined creep parameters of frozen soil and is intended to be applicable to the design of deep circular footings and screw anchors embedded in permafrost soils. On the basis of available experimental evidence, it was concluded that a mathematical model different from that usual in soil mechanics should be used in solving the time-dependent bearing capacity problem of such footings. The solution proposed in the paper was obtained by using the mathematical model of an expanding spherical cavity in a nonlinear viscoelastic-plastic medium with time, temperature, and normal pressure dependent strength properties. For a given footing or anchor, the theory furnishes either isochronous load-displacement curves, or load-creep rate curves, or a time-dependent bearing capacity for which formulas and graphs of nonlinear elastic-plastic bearing capacity factors are supplied.The theoretical predictability of creep rates and ultimate failure loads was checked against the results of screw anchor tests carried out by the Division of Building Research, N.R.C.C., at a permafrost site in Thompson, Manitoba. It was found that the use in the theory of the creep parameters determined by creep-pressuremeter tests performed at the site, resulted in a satisfactory agreement between the predicted and the observed behavior.

Protecting steel columns with sheet steel

What began as a feasibility study in the Canadian Division of Building Research has now been applied in practice, notably on the Stelco Tower Building in Hamilton, Ontario. It involves the use of sheet steel covers, in conjunction with insulating materials, to protect structural steel columns. The technique is described by one who has been associated with it from the beginning as Steel Industries Fellow at the Fire Research Section of the Division.

Finding out user priorities in low-cost housing

If any organisation is starting a low-cost housing scheme the prototype of the house to be built is always considered as too expensive. One way to find a workable solution is to leave out some of the details in order to make it cheaper, a process often called the striptease. This seldom leads to an exciting result, because the researcher does not know the real priorities of those who have to live in ‘basic’ houses. The Division of Building Research, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Melbourne, Australia, has now developed a system to find out what kind of house is really desired by those who may well have their own distinctive cultural values.

Fire and high buildings

The time necessary to evacuate today’s high-rise buildings in a fire emergency is unsatisfactory from the standpoint of the development of untenable smoke conditions. The Division of Building Research has been working on the problem for several years and suggests several approaches to controlling smoke movement in buildings.

BURIED SOIL PROFILE UNDER APRON OF AN EARTH FLOW

Research Article| September 01, 1967 BURIED SOIL PROFILE UNDER APRON OF AN EARTH FLOW W. J EDEN W. J EDEN SOIL MECHANICS SECTION, DIVISION OF BUILDING RESEARCH, NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA, OTTAWA, CANADA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar GSA Bulletin (1967) 78 (9): 1183–1184. https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1967)78[1183:BSPUAO]2.0.CO;2 Article history received: 28 Apr 1967 first online: 02 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation W. J EDEN; BURIED SOIL PROFILE UNDER APRON OF AN EARTH FLOW. GSA Bulletin 1967;; 78 (9): 1183–1184. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1967)78[1183:BSPUAO]2.0.CO;2 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGSA Bulletin Search Advanced Search Abstract Observations made in a sewer trench excavation through the apron of an old earth flow in sensitive clay are briefly described. The original soil profile found under the earth flow debris indicated very wet conditions at the time of the landslide, a necessary requirement to explain the slope failure in the light of current slope stability theories. This content is PDF only. Please click on the PDF icon to access. First Page Preview Close Modal You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.

Volume Changes in Undisturbed Clay Profiles in Western Canada

As part of an over-all study of the performance of building foundations in highly plastic soil areas of western Canada, the Division of Building Research has been measuring ground movements and changes in soil moisture conditions in grass-covered, undisturbed soil profiles under climatic conditions ranging from sub-humid to semi-arid. Results of measurements begun in 1951 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and more recently those in Regina, Eston, and Tisdale, Saskatchewan, are reported. Results of a theoretical soil moisture depletion calculation, based on Thornthwaite's potential evapo-transpiration concept, are presented. It is proposed as a more rational way of measuring the vegetation-climate factor in humid to sub-humid climates than simply comparing air temperature and precipitation with long-term averages. Empirical relationships are suggested between calculated soil moisture depletion, the depth of free water table, and the depth of frost penetration under similar thermal conditions but different soil moisture conditions. Shrinkage in situ of undisturbed, unsaturated soils at temperatures well below 32° F has been observed and is attributed to thermal air-void volume change.