Floor Height Research Articles

A machine learning regression approach for pre-renovation construction waste auditing

The activity from which construction waste arises includes new construction, renovation, and demolition. Renovation waste was traditionally considered as trivial but in recent years, it has gradually come into the focus of construction waste management (CWM). Waste auditing prior to renovation (termed ‘pre-renovation auditing’ or PRA) provides a departure point for good CWM. The core of PRA is accurately predicting renovation waste generation. Benefiting from a valuable dataset containing 351 building renovation projects in Hong Kong, this research aims to develop a robust renovation waste estimation approach. By using machine learning regression, a model containing several easy-to-access features was developed. By simply inputting the feature data (including renovation work type and cost; building type, year, height, and floor area; as well as floor height and the number of renovated floors) into the model, the renovation waste generated from the project can be reliably estimated. Validation experiments indicate that the method has a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 141.52, mean absolute error (MAE) of 79.69, and R-square of 0.83. Comparative experiments show that our method performs better than prevailing ones as reported in the literature. This study thus contributes a novel waste prediction model for pre-renovation waste auditing. With proper modifications, the model can be applied to other regions with different building and renovation features. Future research is recommended to further explore advanced waste estimation methods by integrating new technologies for finer CWM.

Impacts of Building Microenvironment on Energy Consumption in Office Buildings: Empirical Evidence from the Government Office Buildings in Guangdong Province, China

Social progress and economic development has resulted in the need to focus on the impacts of building microenvironment on the energy consumption in office buildings. The concept of a building’s microenvironment was introduced to understand the local microclimate around a building that is formed by the surrounding urban green spaces, the distribution of roads, and building proximity. For this research, we adopted a regression analysis to quantify the impacts of building microenvironment on energy consumption in office buildings. Taking the government office buildings of Guangdong Province as an example, we measured the building microenvironment through the urban green space density, road density, and number of points of interest (POI) around the buildings. The results showed that when the green space density increased by one unit, the energy consumption in government office buildings was reduced by 0.277%. Moreover, an increase of 1% in road density and in the number of POI increased the energy consumption in government office buildings by 0.288% and 0.048%, respectively. Furthermore, we discussed the heterogeneous impacts of building microenvironment on the energy consumption in government office buildings at varying scale levels. Green space and road density had less impact on the energy consumption in larger buildings, whereas the number of POI had no significant impact on small-scale buildings but did have a significant impact on large-scale buildings. There were also some limitations in the study. The data were limited to government office buildings, and did not include panel data, as well as it lacked building characteristics such as orientation, floor height, and building materials. In addition, it was impossible to evaluate the impacts of meteorological factors such as wind speed and thermal radiation on energy consumption in buildings. Nonetheless, our study demonstrates that energy-aware urban planning and design have the potential to unlock energy efficiency for cities worldwide.

Laboratory measurements on replaceable jack-up systems

Floating floor systems are part of state-of-the-art modern building technology. They are an efficient option to improve the acoustical performance of buildings and can be part of box-in-box systems installed in high-performance spaces. There are many types of high-performance floating floor types, one of which is a jack-up system that guarantees that the floor is decoupled from the structural floor. With these systems, once the concrete has cured, the isolated slab is raised off the structure to the required void depth using pre-cast boxes. These boxes allow for easy adjustment of the final floor height and, if the use of the room or load conditions change in the future, can also allow the replacement of the isolators inside them. Replaceable and inspectable acoustical floor systems are perceived as systems with lower sound insulation (airborne noise) than traditional floating floor or non-replaceable jack-up systems. To measure airborne sound reduction and impact noise isolation of replaceable jack-up systems and confirm factors that can influence its performance, CDM Stravitec invested in a testing campaign where measurements were made considering many variables, such as: concrete floating slab thickness; bearings type, air void depth, steel lid installed on top of each box and insulation material installed in the air void. This paper will present the findings of our testing campaign.

Optimal Ensemble Scheme for Human Activity Recognition and Floor Detection Based on AutoML and Weighted Soft Voting Using Smartphone Sensors

In this article, human activity recognition (HAR) attempts to recognize the activities of an object in a multistory building from data retrieved via smartphone-based sensors (SBSs). Most publications based on machine learning (ML) report the development of a suitable architecture to improve classification accuracy by increasing the parameters of the architecture pertaining to HAR. Due to robust and automated ML, it is quite possible to develop a versatile approach to improve the accuracy of HAR. This research proposes an optimal ensemble HAR and floor detection (OEC-HAFD) scheme based on automated learning (AutoML) and weighted soft voting (WSF) using SBS to improve the recognition rate. The proposed HAR-FD scheme is developed based on twofold mechanisms. First, an AutoML paradigm is employed to find optimal supervised models based on performance. Second, top-ranked (optimal) models are combined using the WSF mechanism to classify HAR on various floors of a multistory building. The proposed scheme is developed based on real-time SBS: accelerometer and barometer data. The accelerometer data are used to detect activity by observing the magnitude of the sensor measurements. Similarly, the barometer sensor detects floor height by using pressure and altitude data. Furthermore, we analyze the performance of the proposed optimal ensemble classifier (OEC) and compare them with the state-of-the-art classifiers. Based on the result analysis, it is clearly seen that the proposed OEC outperforms the performance of the individual classifiers. Moreover, our proposed HAR-FD can be leveraged as a robust solution to accurately recognize human activities in multistory buildings compared to the existing standalone models.

Assessing the Seismic Demands on Non-Structural Components Attached to Reinforced Concrete Frames

Nonstructural components (NSCs) are the systems that are attached to the floors of a building structure. NSCs have become critical in sustaining post-earthquake functionality while constructing seismic-resilient structures. The seismic behavior of the NSCs primarily depends upon the behavior of the structure to which the NSC is attached. Building structures are subjected to earthquake loads and behave differently when the supporting soil type varies. In light of this, this study investigates the seismic demands on NSC attached to the floors of an elastic-reinforced concrete building frame supported by different soil types. The present study considered a regular building frame and a building frame with mass irregularity on the lower story. A total of 3 sets of 11 horizontal spectral-matched ground motions consistent with each soil type are considered. Floor response spectra (FRS) can be used to measure the seismic load on non-structural components. Primarily, it was found that the ordinates of FRS depend on the floor height, the vibration periods of the building, and the soil type. The presence of mass irregularity at the lower story amplified the floor response at all floor levels. Additionally, the values of floor spectral acceleration increase as soil flexibility increases. The amplification factors are critical for generating the floor response spectra, and their variation along the building height is discussed. The floor acceleration was found to vary non-linearly with the height of the building. Finally, artificial neural networks (ANNs) are employed to develop the prediction models for dynamic amplification factors. The results calculated by the dynamic time history analyses are utilized to validate the proposed prediction models.

Influence of staggered floor and unequal height of left and right beam on seismic behavior of CFSST column-to-HSS beam composite frames

One-third scale models of three concrete-filled square steel tubular (CFSST) column-to-H-shaped steel (HSS) beam composite frames with two bays and three stories were designed and manufactured. A failure test of the specimens under lateral cyclic loading was conducted. The experimental parameters included a staggered floor ratio and unequal depth ratio, staggered floor ratios of 0 and 0.5, and unequal height ratios of 0 and 0.75. The skeleton curves, hysteresis curves, and the stiffness and strength degradation of the CFSST column-to-HSS beam composite frame were analyzed. The results showed that the test frames exhibited excellent seismic performance, and the order is KJ-1, KJ-2 and KJ-3. The drift ratio ranges of δy, δm, δu were 1/123-1/191, 1/37-1/38, and 1/27-1/29, respectively, indicating that the three test frames possessed sufficient ductility and met the seismic objective of not collapsing in large earthquakes. The equivalent viscous damping coefficients of the specimens in the failure stage were in the range of 0.24–0.18, meeting the earthquake protection requirements. A simulation model have developed to predict the P-Δ response envelope. The model results were consistent with the test results.

Early onset of veno-venous hemodiafiltration in treatment of severe combined trauma (clinical observation)

Severe combined trauma is characterized by high mortality both among young people (above 20 %) and among the older age group (about 45 %). Correction of metabolic disorders is the most difficult task, especially in the first hours after injury.Objective. To demonstrate the effectiveness of early initiation of veno-venous hemodiafiltration on the example of successful treatment of a patient with severe combined trauma (ISS is 57 points).Clinical observation. Patient A., 19 years old, was taken to the surgical intensive care unit by an ambulance team with a directional diagnosis of ‘severe combined injury’ as a result of falling from a height of the 6th floor in a state of alcoholic intoxication. Considering the impossibility of correcting waterelectrolyte and metabolic disorders by conservative methods, it was decided to start extracorporeal treatment early in the volume of prolonged venovenous hemodiafiltration with citrate-calcium anticoagulation (Ci-Ca CVVHD). In addition, the patient received therapy within the framework of the current recommendations for the treatment of severe combined trauma. Against the background of the ongoing treatment, there was a distinct positive trend. Vasopressor support was discontinued on day 3, and on day 15 the patient was transferred to independent breathing. In total, one CVVHD session was conducted, with a total duration of 62 hours. The patient’s stay in the intensive care unit was 29 days, in the profile distance – 4 days with subsequent discharge.Conclusions. The use of the CVVHD method in a patient with severe combined trauma in the early period without the phenomena of acute kidney injury contributed to the relief of metabolic disorders with the stabilization of the homeostasis system. However, in order to form conclusions and expand indications for the use of extracorporeal detoxification methods in patients with severe combined trauma, further study of this issue is necessary.

Development of a system for ranking geomechanical factors, which influence the stability of uranium mines workings

The subject of research presented in the article are processes that take into account the influence of geomechanical factors on the stability of mining workings of uranium mines. The purpose of this work is development of a system for ranking geomechanical factors by the degree of danger based on the analysis of risk factors that affect the stability of uranium mines. The work uses critical analysis and generalization of both own research results and the results of domestic and foreign authors. The geomechanical factors that affect the stability of the mining workings of uranium mines have been determined. It is shown that their influence has both a direct and an indirect effects due to the connection with mining-geological and technological parameters. The stability of the workings is significantly influenced by mining and technical factors (outcropping time, working space length, floor height, compression properties and structure of the backfill mass, chamber width, dynamics of cleaning works progress), mining and geological factors (depth of mining, thickness of the ore body, strength (deformation)) and physical and mechanical properties of the rock mass. In addition, the engineering and technical conditions of mine construction have a significant impact, in particular, the form and size of the workings, their orientation in the massif, the method of carrying out and supporting, the design and technology of fastening, etc. It is practically impossible to simultaneously take into account all factors in an analytical way, so it is necessary to select one or two main factors that are of decisive importance for the description of a specific geomechanical process. The originality of the work is the proposed ranking of geomechanical factors that affect the stability of mining workings of uranium mines. The ranking of geological, physical and mechanical factors on the stability of the chamber system elements at underground mining of uranium ores, according to the degree of attenuation of the influence, is as follows: strength of rocks → structure of the massif → angle of fall of the deposit → water content of the deposit → thickness of a seam. The ranking of the influence of support preparatory and capital workings on their stability, according to the degree of risk decrease, is as follows: no support → grid with anchors → sprayed concrete → wooden support → metal frame support with tightening → metal arches in concrete. Generalized ranking of the influence of the most significant factors on the stability of mining workings: geological, physical and mechanical factors → parameters of the development system → fastening technologies.

“Performance assessment of composite steel building with considering plan irregularity before and after Retrofit”- Pushover Analysis”

The performance assessment of the structure under an unexpected earthquake is the key thing to recognize the individual failure of elements of a structure by conducting an inelastic static pushover analysis. If there are multiple earthquakes in any of the year, the performance of structure assessed from linear elastic analysis is not sufficient therefore there is a need of study on non-linear behavior of the structure to provide an extra safety to the structures. The nonlinear dynamic analysis needs lot of data to be given to the generated model in software for studying the behavior of the structure but there is another promising method to overcome the above complexity that is nonlinear static analysis (Pushover analysis) to the assess the behavior of the structure when subjected to multiple earthquakes. For the present study, A G+6 Story ‘L’ Shape plan irregular steel structure (model 1) with floor to floor height as 3 m and 7 bays in ‘X’ & ‘Y’ direction of each 4 m is considered. From Pushover analysis on ‘L’ shape steel structure, it was observed that some of corner columns reached capacity ratio due to excessive stress at beam-column junction and to overcome this, the retrofitting technique was adopted that is consideration of those corners columns as composite columns in the same steel structure (model 2). The plastic hinges formed due to PUSHX for model 1 have reached immediate occupancy performance level to life safety performance level but at 9th iteration, 8 numbers of plastic hinges have been formed in Collapse presentation level hence there might be partial or complete collapse of structure. After retrofitting model 1, the plastic hinges in greater than CP level were formed in different step number so therefore, model 2 sustains more damage before it collapse.

Dewetting Process of Silver Thin Films and Its Application on Percolative Pressure Sensors with High Sensitivity.

This work reports on an innovative dewetting process of silver thin films to realize percolative nanoparticle arrays (NPAs) and demonstrates its application on highly sensitive pressure sensors. The dewetting process, which is a simple and promising technique, synthesizes NPAs by breaking the as-deposited metal film into randomly distributed islands. The NPA properties, such as the mean particle size and the spacing between adjacent particles, can be easily tailored by controlling the dewetting temperature, as well as the as-deposited metal-film thickness. The fabricated NPAs were employed to develop gauge pressure sensors with high sensitivity. The proposed sensor consists of a sealed reference-pressure cavity, a polyimide (PI) membrane patterned with an interdigital electrode pair (IEP), and a silver NPA deposited on the IEP and the PI membrane. The operational principle of the device is based on the NPA percolation effect with deformation-dependence. The fabricated sensors exhibit rapid responses and excellent linearity at around 1 atm. The maximum sensitivity is about 0.1 kPa-1. The advantages of the proposed devices include ultrahigh sensitivity, a reduced thermal disturbance, and a decreased power consumption. A practical application of this pressure sensor with high resolution was demonstrated by using it to measure the relative floor height of a building.

A Study on the Planning Features of Officetel Unit Plans by Size - Focused on the Residential Officetels on Sale in Seoul -

This study aims to find out officetels’ residential properties by analyzing the planning features of each space according to the size of the units. Targeting the officetels recently sold in Seoul, a total of 282 unit plans were selected as the subjects of this study, and the structural characteristics, spatial planning, and storage and utility features were identified by detailed items. The results are as follows; 1) There are many 2-story plans, and the floor heights of the units are often higher than that of general apartments, showing changes in vertical structure. In addition, reflecting residents’ demands for ventilation and daylight, there were many cases of increased window surface even in the small units. Balconies, which are important for utility or storage functions, have been difficult to find in officetels before, but the form of veranda or terrace were planned using various structural ideas. 2) The number of rooms for living were increased, and percentage of bathtub installation and two bathrooms are relatively high, indicating that it is planned to accommodate up to three or four household members. 3) Although functional elements such as storage and utilities were not planned enough, they were provided in various ways. The recent officetel plans include various spatial factors that can improve habitability even in restrictive situations, which could enable the development of a new residential space differentiated from uniform and standardized apartments.

Seismic Analysis of Flat Slab Buildings on Hilly Ground

In India, hilly region especially northern part is more seismically active region. Flat Slab systems are widely popular in multi-storey buildings. Flat slab building has more advantages than a regular building like fast construction, free design space, reduced floor to floor height and economical. Flat slab buildings are also being built in high seismicity region. Buildings on hilly ground are vulnerable due to their vertical and horizontal irregularity and they undergo high shear and torsion during the earthquake. Further due to short column and soft storey on uphill side has higher lateral forces that are cause to failure of buildings. In this paper, an attempt has been made to assess the seismic behavior of flat slab resting on hilly slope with soft storey and set back configuration. The methodologies have been adopted are linear dynamic analysis i.e. response spectrum analysis. Building is analyzed and designed by Etabs software. Maximum displacement, maximum inter-storey drift and storey shear are determined as response quantities. It is observed from the study that for flat slab buildings on hill slopes the storey shear is very high in the bottom columns at higher ground level, therefore extra care should be taken to design these columns for earthquake load.

Sensitivity analysis of design variables in life-cycle environmental impacts of buildings

Buildings are responsible for a large portion of global energy consumption and carbon emissions. Improvements in building design contribute to reducing environmental impacts of buildings. In this context, a crucial issue is to understand which design variables should be considered while which variables could be negligible. The objective of this study is to develop a framework for assessing the influence of various design variables throughout the design process in the environmental impacts of a building over its life cycle. This methodological framework combined building information modelling and life cycle assessment tools and a global sensitivity analysis using the Morris elementary effects method. A residential building was applied to demonstrate the developed framework. The influence of six design variables in early design stages (including, floor area, aspect ratio, floor height, orientation, window-to-wall ratio and number of floors), nine variables in detailed design stages (including, structure type of external and internal walls, type of insulation material for external and internal walls, insulation material for floors, waterproofing and insulation material for roof, type of window frame, and glazing type), and four variables in construction design stages (including, type of finishing for external walls, internal walls and floors, and roof tiles) are examined. Three environmental impact criteria (including, embodied, operational, and life-cycle environmental impacts) of a building are considered. The results identified the most influential variables throughout the design process, highlighting aspect ratio in early design stage, the structure and insulation materials for walls in detailed design stages, and the roof title in construction design stages. The outcomes of this research can assist in understanding the importance of design variables in each design stage throughout the design process of a building.

Flexural Behavior of RC Beams with an Abrupt Change in Depth: Experimental Work

The most crucial components in the case of roofs with two levels or a variable floor height are variable depth beams. In order to investigate the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams with varying depths under static loads, experimental research was conducted. Under the four-point bending flexural test, two reference beams with constant depth, six dapped beams at the soffit, and four dapped beams at the top were tested. For all beams with a 150 mm depth, a 100 mm increase in depth occurred at the middle span of the beams. The primary characteristics included the impact of increasing depth, the impact of stirrups’ absence and their various ratios, and the characteristics of the longitudinal bars at the locations of sudden depth changes in either the top or bottom bars. Both the cracks’ progression and the load-deflection relationship along the beam’s length were observed. The ultimate carrying load (Pu) was reduced by 23.56% and 27.35% as a result of the 100 mm increase in the half-span of the beam over the constant depth in case of changes at the top and soffit, respectively. The Pu was increased by a ratio ranging from 20.9% to 31.35% for the bottom dapped beams and by a ratio of 29.79% for the top dapped beams due to the various stirrup ratios in the dapped area. The ductility was significantly impacted by the elevated stirrup ratios in the dapped area. The predicted results and the experimental results matched when the Pu of the tested beams was evaluated using the strut and tie model.

Urban form simulation in 3D based on cellular automata and building objects generation

Modeling urban form change is fundamental to mitigate the negative impacts of urban development. Despite the extensive applications of cellular automata (CA) models in urban simulation, an important drawback of contemporary urban CA models is that they cannot explicitly represent urban form change in a 3D manner, hence hampering the proper evaluation of the impacts of urban form. This study addresses this issue by developing a hybrid approach of 3D urban form simulation. The proposed approach integrates a patch-based urban CA model and a tool for 3D modeling of building objects. A case study is carried out in Panyu, China, to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed simulation approach. The experimental results show that the simulated urban land use pattern achieves an overall similarity of 83% as compared against the observed one. The building height predictions yielded by the random forest algorithm have relatively good performance, with the errors close to a standard floor height (3.18–4.57 m). Three scenarios of future urban form are simulated according to the narratives of the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP). The SSP simulations are used to produce three sets of gridded morphological parameters that are compatible with mainstream regional climate models. The resulting urban form parameters are compared to infer the potential effects of different urban forms in the SSP scenarios.

Field Measurement on Translational and Torsional Wind-Induced Response of a High-Rise Building during Typhoon Khanun

Full measurements for the wind field atop a 32-storey building (supported by four huge columns) and for the dynamic responses of different floors were conducted on 15 October 2017 to obtain the translational and torsional responses of the high-rise building during the Typhoon Khanun. The time histories of the torsional angular acceleration responses on the 24th and 32nd floors of the high-rise building were obtained using RA013 rotational accelerometer, and those of the translational acceleration responses on the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th, 30th and 32nd floors along axial direction were recorded by the translational accelerometer. The variation rules of the translational and torsional acceleration responses with floor height and mean wind speed were disclosed, and the response ratios between the torsional and translational acceleration were analyzed when basic time intervals were 10 min. Based on the target probability method, the value range of the acceleration peak factor with different target reliability under Typhoon Khanun was proposed. The results show that the translational and torsional acceleration peak values and root mean squares are the power functions of mean wind speed. The values of acceleration peak factors are recommended to be 3.0 and 5.0 if target reliabilities are determined as 99.38% and 100%, respectively. Research on torsional response measurements can accumulate valuable scientific data and lay solid foundations for the subsequent studies on the torsional wind-resistant design of high-rise buildings.

The Relation between Morphology of Maxillary Sinus after Augmentation in Three Classification Methods and Residual Bone Height: A Retrospective Study.

Maxillary sinus augmentation is critical to oral implantology, particularly in some cases. The morphology of the sinus floor reflects the lifting effect to a certain extent; however, there has been limited research on the morphology after sinus augmentation. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between residual bone height (RBH) and the morphology of the sinus floor and determine whether a correlation exists between the different evaluation classifications. Maxillary sinus floor augmentation procedures were performed in 56 patients and 68 teeth using the sinus crest approach (SCA). Imaging results obtained after one year of sinus augmentation were analyzed and simultaneously classified along the coronal plane, the sagittal plane, and the biplane (coronal-sagittal). The higher the RBH, the closer the result tends to be to A, A', or type 1 (more satisfactory). There was a significant correlation between the three different evaluation classifications (p < 0.05). The morphology of perforation cases was involved in types C, D, C', and D'. A more satisfactory post-lifting morphology (tent type and flat type) is probably related to an optimal preoperative bone height, and an unsatisfactory post-lifting morphology is related to a low preoperative sinus floor height. The sagittal plane evaluation correlates with the coronal plane and biplane evaluation and is thus more recommended.

The effect of longitudinal hole shape and size on the flexural behavior of RC beams

The building's electro-mechanical piping systems can pass through transverse or longitudinal holes inside the reinforced concrete (RC) secondary beams, thus increasing the available floor height. These holes induced a reduction in the beam stiffness and strength. This work analytically and experimentally investigates the impact of longitudinal hole shape on the flexural behavior of RC beams. The interaction between hole shape and hole location has also been studied. The test program includes nine beams with the same cross section dimensions and steel reinforcement. Holes have been made using two circular PVC pipes (50 and 75 mm in diameter), and wooden medium-density fiberboard (MDF) square tubes (50×50 mm) and rectangular tubes (50×100 mm). Each hole shape was installed at two locations (90 and 160 mm) from the top of the beam. All beams were tested to failure using a four-point bending test. The results show that the hole shape and size up to half the beam width does not affect the failure mode compared to the solid control beam. The reduction in the ultimate strength of hollow beams compared to the control beam depends on the hole shape and size, with a maximum reduction of 20%. The developed analytical models were validated using experimental test results and can be employed to accurately predict the full flexural behavior of hollow RC beams, including cracking, yielding, and ultimate moments/loads.

Application Effect of External and Internal Elevation of Maxillary Sinus in Implant Restoration of Posterior Maxilla.

Objective To explore and analyze the application effect of external and internal elevation of the maxillary sinus in implant restoration of the posterior maxilla. Methods A total of 84 patients undergoing implant restoration of the posterior maxilla in the hospital were enrolled between January 2019 and March 2021. According to the random number table method, they were divided into the observation group (n = 42) and the control group (n = 42). The control group underwent external elevation of the maxillary sinus, while the observation group underwent internal elevation of the maxillary sinus. At 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h after surgery, the pain degree between the two groups was compared. All were followed up at 6 months after surgery. The osseointegration (bone resorption around implants, elevation height of maxillary sinus floor, average healing time) and soft tissues (bleeding index, plaque index, probing depth) in both groups were observed. The occurrence of postoperative complications was recorded. Results At 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h after surgery, VAS scores in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05). At 6 months after surgery, bone resorption and elevation height of the maxillary sinus floor in the observation group were significantly higher than those i.0.0n the control group, and the average healing time was significantly shorter than that in the control group (P < 0.05). The bleeding index, plaque index, and probing depth in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the incidence of postoperative complications between the observation group and the control group (9.52% vs. 19.05%) (P > 0.05). Conclusion The application effect of internal elevation of the maxillary sinus is good in implant restoration of the posterior maxilla, which can relieve pain and swelling and improve implant effect.

Investigation and numerical reconstruction of a full-scale electric bicycle fire experiment in high-rise residential building

Electric bicycle (E-bike) fires have attracted more concerns recently in the field of fire safety science since several fatal fires occurred especially in residential buildings. This paper conducts a full-scale experiment of E-bike fire in a typical high-rise residential building of China. Fire and smoke characteristics as well as their influences on the residents’ safety and evacuation are studied. It was found that E-bike fire grows quite rapidly once ignited. Less smoke could spread into these residential rooms with closed door. Sealing the entrance door gap could effectively help to prevent the smoke. At the very first stage of the fire (around 4.5min from igniting), the residents could choose to evacuate downstairs. However, it is a better option to stay at home waiting for help during most of the fire period. Smoke from this fire did not exceed the height of the 10th floor in the staircase. Thus, for the residents on the 10th floor and above, to escape through the staircase upward to the building roof is another safe option. Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) was used to numerically reconstruct this fire. The numerical results show good agreement with the experiments. Based on accurate parameters and boundary conditions, FDS is verified to be feasible to conduct numerical reconstruction of E-bike fires for the purpose of assisting fire investigation.