Floor Of Building Research Articles

RADON MEASUREMENTS IN BIG BUILDINGS: PILOT STUDY IN RUSSIA.

Detailed analysis of indoor radon concentration distribution by floors was conducted in four children institutions, one office building and two residential houses in Russian cities to develop approaches to draw up a program of radon survey for big buildings. Higher variability of radon concentration was found in high geogenic radon potential (GRP) area when the soil is the main source of radon. No essential dependence of radon concentration on the floor in high-rise buildings was found in low GRP area. The number of required radon measurements is estimated using obtained characteristics of radon variability.

Flow-Velocity and Pressure Fitness of Sprinkler Pipes Applied with Orifice

The sprinkler design of buildings is based on the top-floor end sprinkler head, and the water flow rate and pressure are designed. When the floor is close to the bottom floor pump, unnecessary flow rate, pressure, and flow velocity become inevitable. Moreover, when the sprinkler head is opened to less than the actual fire time reference number, the excessive flow rate, flow velocity, and pressure are generated. Therefore, the damage to the water or droplet particle becomes less significant, which can be disadvantageous for efficient fire suppression. Therefore, in this study, we applied an orifice to the branch pipe of each sprinkler head to decrease the excessive flow rate, flow velocity, and pressure. It was confirmed that the design value was maintained for each floor of the high building. When the orifice was applied, the flow rate and positive well were reduced, which could prevent overpressure.

History of weaving in Azerbaijan

One of the interesting part of craftsmanship is weaving and its’ history is very ancient. The article was dedicated to history of weaving in Azerbaijan. Archaeological materials which concern to weaving were unearthed during the excavations last decade are very significant for the history of craftsmanship. From Neolothic to Medieval period weaving had been developed and catched its’ industrial high. Archaeological materials give us an opportunity to describe a life of weavers in ancient times in Azerbaijan. According to weaving, abundance of raw material reserves in Azerbaijan territories have rich development since ancient times.First of all, there are included wild technical plants as well as lagh, linen, hemp mallow, nettle and etc. Along with this, development of cattle-breeding especially weaving and existence of main raw material reserves,wool should be emphasized. According to researches, early step of weaving was connected with simple technical habits in weaving field. Archaeologists suppose that bone tools with sharp edge which were found at “Firuz” camp in Qobustan of the Mesolithic period are related to elementary weaving. So that, actually we can’t deny the fact of appearance of initial habits in weaving field before the Neolithic period.Afterwards, habits obtained in weaving stimulated formation of weaving in the Neolithic period.In the Neolithic period and in the Eneolithic period that had replaced it, weaving became one of the significant fields for home craftsmen. As is known, at that time fields as home craftsmen’s stoneprocessing, boneprocessing, ceramics production, leather and peltprocessing, metalprocessing were spread widely. Actually, development of weaving was closely connected with most of above said fields of craftsmanship.There was defined existance of traces of mattings made from clay and reed at Kultepe I near to Nakhchivan city and Alikomektepesi monument in Mugan. There are remains of textile and matting on sceletons and on surface of clay pots in opened ground graves. In addition, there are found remains of mattings on clay floors of buildings of Alikomektepesi settlement.

Seismic behavior of riser pipes with pressure and groove joints using an in-plane cyclic loading test

In the event of an earthquake, structures are shaken in various ways, and side sway occurs between floors. The equipment installed inside these structures is affected by this side sway, and the effect thereof can be significantly large on the riser pipes that are connected from lower to upper floors of high-rise buildings. In this study, steel jigs that were implemented on the first floor of a structure were fabricated, and riser pipe systems were installed in accordance with the National Fire Protection Association 13 standards. The seismic performance of the riser pipes was analyzed through an in-plane cyclic loading test for the allowable side sway as per the American Society of Civil Engineers 7–16 standard. The pipe systems included elbows and tee joints, which are vulnerable to earthquakes. The pipes were connected using pressure joints and groove joints, and the results obtained using both types of connections were compared. The strain, stress, and deformation angle, which are required to evaluate the seismic performance of the fittings and connectors of riser pipes in the event of an earthquake, were analyzed for the allowable side sway.

Introduction: Studying Under-Floor Church Burials in Finland\u2013\u2013Challenges in Stewarding the Past for the Future

Two ongoing projects at the University of Oulu, Finland, are studying burials situated below the floorboards of Finnish churches. The projects examine mortality and materiality in Finland using an exceptionally well-preserved assemblage of mummified human remains. Multidisciplinary research methods, including CT scanning, μCT scanning, sampling for DNA and isotope analysis, and insect and plant samples, are providing multifaceted information concerning past societies. The samples provide rich insight into the material dimensions of mortality in northern Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the studied material is located under the floors of church buildings that are still in use by congregations, obtaining permits for research and sampling has required managing relationships with separate parishes. This article outlines the projects and examines the ethical and legal dimensions of research on human remains conducted in partnership with individual parishes.

Impact of reinforcement on shrinkage in the concrete floors of a residential building

Abstract The type of floor in a building object results from the serviceability requirements, technical possibilities, and costs of its implementation. Concrete screeds constituting the structural layer of the floor can be made without reinforcement, with dispersed reinforcement, or reinforced with meshes of various materials. Due to the large surface dimensions, concrete screeds are susceptible to scratches as a result of occurring strains, service loads and unevenness of the floor. There are detailed recommendations on how to make floors, and on the materials used. However, the conditions in which floors are made often differ from those recommended. The article presents the results of measured strains on the surfaces of three screeds constituting the floor layer in a residential building. The screeds, which were made in identical environmental conditions, differed in the type of reinforcement used: steel mesh, dispersed polypropylene fibres, fibreglass mesh. In addition, strain measurements were carried out on concrete and fibre-reinforced concrete specimens made of the mix used to make the screeds. The results allowed the assessment of the effectiveness of the reinforcement used, the impact of environmental conditions on the values, and the analysis of differences in the course of strains in real elements and the specimens.

Influence of Blasting Vibration of MLEMC Shaft Foundation Pit on Adjacent High-Rise Frame Structure: A Case Study

The construction of metro line energy management center (MLEMC) is one of the important parts of metro line, which is the key organization to realize the energy consumption management of the metro operation. To protect the safety of adjacent high-rise buildings during the blasting of subway foundation pit engineering, it is crucial to study the response characteristics of building structures. This paper takes the MLEMC vertical pit blasting project of Wuhan Metro Line 8 as an example. The law of blasting vibration attenuation along the earth’s surface and the vibration velocity response characteristics of the building structure were analyzed by small explosive test. LSDYNA numerical model was established, and the reliability of the model and parameters was verified by experimental data. Combined with the relevant specifications, the maximum charge in single delay was calculated and analyzed. The numerical model of the maximum charge in single was established, and the prediction model of the vibration velocity related to the floors of high-rise buildings was further proposed. Combined with the failure principle of reinforced concrete structure, the safety of high-rise buildings under blasting vibration was analyzed and evaluated.

Unannounced Evacuation Experiment in a High-Rise Hotel Building with Evacuation Elevators: A Study of Evacuation Behaviour Using Eye-Tracking

Past studies suggest that people are often reluctant to use occupant evacuation elevators in case of fire. However, existing research is scarce and current knowledge is based on questionnaire studies and laboratory experiments. An unannounced evacuation experiment was therefore performed on the 16th floor of a 35-floor high-rise hotel building. Sixty-seven participants took part and eye-tracking glasses were used to collect data on exit choice and eye fixations. Three different scenarios were studied, including two different hotel room locations on the floor and a variation of guidance system for one of these locations, i.e., flashing green lights next to the evacuation sign at the elevators. Results suggest that people typically choose the elevator for evacuation, even if their hotel room was located closer to the evacuation stair. Flashing green lights next to an evacuation sign made people look more at this sign. However, in spite of looking more at the sign, the flashing light was not shown to significantly improve compliance with the sign. Also, the results suggest that a detector activated self-closing fire door without vision panels to the elevator lobby made it more difficult to find the evacuation elevators in an emergency.

НОРМАТИВНО-ПРАВОВЕ РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ ГІГІЄНІЧНИХ ПИТАНЬ ЩОДО РОЗМІЩЕННЯ ВБУДОВАНИХ ЗАКЛАДІВ ОХОРОНИ ЗДОРОВ'Я В ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКИХ КРАЇНАХ

In modern urban development, design solutions take into account the increase in the number of people living in cities and the growing need of the population to provide public facilities: shopping and entertainment facilities, health care facilities, administrative institutions, sports facilities, pharmacies, grocery stores and others, which due to the shortage of land and architectural planning to increase the number of storeys of buildings, are located in built-in rooms on the first and second floors of residential buildings. Such placement of public objects provides conditions of convenient and territorially close to the place of residence access to them, however, such a combination of public and residential buildings in one building, as well as the joint use of the adjacent territory requires a detailed study from a hygienic point of view. In Ukraine, there are no sanitary and anti-epidemic requirements for the placement of built-in health care facilities, which necessitated the study of foreign experience in these matters. According to the results of the analysis of normative documents of sanitary and town-planning legislation of the EU countries, in particular the Republic of Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, the Republic of Moldova, France in terms of requirements for design, placement and operation of built-in health facilities and urban planning legislation provides for the placement of built-in health care facilities, in compliance with a number of sanitary and anti-epidemic requirements. In the EU countries, sanitary and anti-epidemic requirements for the location and operation of built-in health care facilities focused on the following architectural, planning and functional solutions: arrangement of a separate isolated entrance group to the built-in health care facility; creating safe, convenient and unimpeded access to the building and all medical and ancillary facilities for people with special needs, which include ramps, elevators, lifts, access for guide animals for the visually impaired and others; implementation of precautionary (health) measures when placing built-in health care facilities, which include dividing walls, autonomous ventilation systems and others; compliance with the normative sizes of medical and auxiliary premises. We consider it necessary to implement the current sanitary and hygienic requirements of the EU countries on the conditions of placement of built-in health care facilities in the sanitary legislation of Ukraine by amending the national normative document: "Sanitary and anti-epidemic requirements for health care facilities that provide primary medical (medical and sanitary) care. DSanPiN 2.3-183-2013 ”(as amended), which will help improve the sanitary legislation of Ukraine, as well as preserve the health of medical staff, patients and residents of residential buildings, which house built-in health care facilities.

Study of Local Construction and Technique: Adequacy of an Existing Nubian Vaulted Building with the "Bioclimatic" Concept Including the Performance of Its Envelope in Sahelian Climate of Ouagadougou

This study permitted to evaluate the adequacy of an existing Nubian vaulted building with the "bioclimatic" concept including the performance of its envelope. In that purpose, we needed to analyze its architectural concept and to measure parameters such as the temperature of the internal and external surfaces of all the façades (walls, roof and floor) of the study building. The measurement campaign took place over three (03) days in the month of January 2018 with a one-hour step for temperatures. Out of eleven (11) bioclimatic principles identified, six (06) were respected in the design of the building. In addition, we obtained thermal amplitudes of the interior surfaces lower than 1.5°C for the walls and 5°C for the roof, a decrement factor lower than 12% for the walls and 17% for the roof and a thermal time lag of 6 to 8 hours on in average for the walls and 4 to 6 hours in average for the roof. Finally, after evaluation of the thermal loads, with the Nubian vault building a reduction of a bit more than one third (1/3) of the thermal loads is achieved comparatively to a building of the same size made of cinder blocks for the walls and aluminum roofing sheet. However, this comfort offered by the Nubian vault can be improved with more bioclimatic provisions which we have recommended.

Vibration control in buildings under seismic excitation using optimized tuned mass dampers

Earthquakes can cause vibration problems in many types of structures, generating large displacements. The interstory drift is a design criterion very used in seismic analysis and the structural control is an alternative to reduce these displacements and improve the performance of these structures adapting them to the imposed criteria. TMD is a device widely used due to the simple principle of operation and many successful applications in real life practice. This paper investigates the use of optimized TMD for reduction of maximum horizontal displacement at the top floor and interstory drift of a steel building under seismic excitation considering three scenarios: single TMD at the top floor; MTMD horizontally arranged at the top floor; and MTMD vertically arranged on the structure. By a metaheuristic optimization algorithm, the parameters and positions of the devices are obtained. Three real and one artificial earthquakes are employed in the simulations. The results showed that all proposed scenarios are efficient in reducing top floor response and interstory drift to values below of the interstory drift limits allowed by the standard code consulted. However, Scenario 2 presented the best reduction for the top displacement and interstory drift to the critical floor for the worst earthquake considered.

An approach to urban building height and floor estimation by using LiDAR data

Assessment of precise, fast, and up-to-date building and building floor data are essential for urban design, planning, and management and urban environmental studies. These maps are frequently required for tracking building construction speed, monitoring horizontal and vertical urban growth and illegal constructions, updating building records, preparing reasonable urban plans, assessing hazard and risk, and generating infrastructure plans. In this study, a combination of aerial photographs and LiDAR data are used to produce individual building heights and then estimate building the floor. The two recorded laser pulse reflections of LiDAR point cloud data: First pulse (FP) and last pulse (LP) reflections were used to obtain the digital surface model (DSM) and the digital terrain model (DTM), respectively. The normalized digital surface model (nDSM) is calculated to obtain the height values of each building. The accuracy of the proposed algorithm is assessed for each building floor using ground truth data and has shown an overall accuracy of 79% and a kappa equal to 0.74 which is a promising result.

The neutron component of background of an HPGe detector operating in a surface laboratory

Investigation of neutron-induced background was carried out by studying interactions of cosmic-ray neutrons with an HPGe detector inside its shield placed on a ground floor of a 3-storey building. The study was conducted experimentally and by Monte Carlo simulations using GEANT4 simulation tool. Detailed analysis of measured background γ-ray spectra showed that many γ-lines visible in the spectra were induced by neutrons. The majority of detected γ-rays originated in germanium, copper, lead and tin. Iron and aluminium components were less important background sources. Inelastic scattering and neutron capture were the most often occurring processes of neutron interactions with the detector and its shielding. The contamination by natural radionuclides, specifically of 40K, 214Pb, 214Bi and 208Tl, was also present in the background spectra. Nevertheless, approximately 35% of 208Tl peak at the energy of 2614.51 keV was produced by inelastic scattering of neutrons on 208Pb nuclei. The experimental background was compared with GEANT4 simulations, which were carried out without and with the shielding layer of the building. The final integral counting rates for measured spectrum in the energy range from 50 keV to 2875 keV was 1.26 ± 0.07 s−1 and for simulated one 1.25 ± 0.13 s−1, indicating a good agreement with the experiment.

QUALITATIVE ROUTING INSTRUCTIONS IN INDOOR SPACE

Abstract. This paper discusses the generation of routing instructions in indoor space. We develop a user-friendly application that guides a pedestrian to reach a desired destination within a typical building floor in a simply and quickly way. Starting from a suitable navigation graph of the floor, the application considers qualitative reasoning techniques to produce indications such as “go slightly further” or “keep on the right” and adds a semantic level that provides indications on the visible landmarks along the route, such as “continue after the reception desk on the right”. This characteristic is fundamental when the users do not have a previous knowledge of the building, as they can be reassured by the presence of landmarks that help to understand if the taken direction is the correct one. The algorithm proposed on this paper is able to generate navigation instructions closer to what would be the typical indications of a human guide. We evaluate the result for some case studies of building floors.

The Influence of Floor Type of Multi-Family Residential on the Transaction Price and the Estimation of Utility Ratio among Floors

In Taiwan’s multi-family residential, there are some problems in the previous research on the utility ratio among floors, including the failure to consider the difference in total number of floors, the excessive research scope and the residential price without deducting the parking space price. This research hopes to improve the problems of previous research, select 1,172 data of multi-family residential with total number of floors of 12, 15 and 22, and use the hedonic price model to establish the utility ratio among floors of residential buildings, and then compare the difference between absolute floors and relative floors on the transaction price. The empirical results found that in the comparative analysis of absolute floors and relative floors, the variable of relative floors is significant, showing that the residential price is significantly different with different total number of floors, and the total number of floors is higher that the residential price is higher; the importance of absolute floors on the residential price isn’t high. In the model of utility ratio among floors of different total number of floors, the utility curves are distributed in zigzag pattern. Taking floor 4 as the base floor, the floor price difference is higher on floor 1 and near the top floors, and the floor price difference of other floors is not significant.

An efficient three-dimensional method for the prediction of building vibrations from underground railway networks

This paper proposes a new efficient three-dimensional (3D) method to predict the vertical building vibration generated by trains running in tunnels in a multi-layered half-space. The tunnel-ground-building dynamic interaction involving in the proposed method is handled using the sub-structuring approach. The multi-story building is considered as rectangular floors supported by a distribution of columns. Each building floor is divided into several sub-plates. The dynamic stiffness matrix of a single sub-plate derived by the dynamic stiffness method is assembled to obtain the global one of each building floor. The free edge condition of the building floor is satisfied in this solution. The train-track-tunnel-ground dynamic interaction is modelled by a fully-coupled analytical method. The proposed method shows sufficient efficiency and accuracy, making it a suitable tool for predicting large-scale vibrations and performing parametric studies. The responses of a four-story building generated by the passage of trains in a tunnel are analyzed. The building vibrations are significantly affected by the dynamic properties of the building and the building-ground dynamic interaction. The dynamic interaction between the shallow foundations of buildings has a considerable influence on the building vibrations in the low-frequency range. The isolation effectiveness of the floating slab track and the base-isolation of buildings is highly dependent on the isolation frequency.

Knowledge Discovery Using Topological Analysis for Building Sensor Data.

Distributed sensor networks are at the heart of smart buildings, providing greater detail and valuable insights into their energy consumption patterns. The problem is particularly complex for older buildings retrofitted with Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) where extracting useful knowledge from large sensor data streams without full understanding of the underlying system variables is challenging. This paper presents an application of Q-Analysis, a computationally simple topological approach for summarizing large sensor data sets and revealing useful relationships between different variables. Q-Analysis can be used to extract novel structural features called Q-vectors. The Q-vector magnitude visualizations are shown to be very effective in providing insights on macro behaviors, i.e., building floor behaviors in the present case, which are not evident from the use of unsupervised learning algorithms applied on individual terminal units. It has been shown that the building floors exhibited distinct behaviors that are dependent on the set-point distribution, but independent of the time and season of the year.

Finite element modelling for the dynamic analysis of hollow-core concrete floors in buildings

Precast hollow-core concrete (HC) slabs are widely used in construction, especially in Nordic countries. The combination of prestressing and low self-weight due to the voids makes it possible to build long-span floors. However, this also implies that the floors become more sensitive to vibrations from human activities, and consequently a finite element model of the floor is often necessary in order to perform a dynamic analysis. However, there are no guidelines or recommendations to implement such finite element models for HC floors. In this paper, six in-situ dynamic experiments performed in 4 buildings are presented. For each case, several finite element models have been implemented and tested. These analyses show that the orthotropic shell model for the HC floor proposed by the authors in a previous publication gives good results in all the studies. The results also indicate that the concrete walls or the steel beams and columns surrounding the floor should be incorporated in the finite element model in order to get accurate results. Besides, in some cases, the floors below and above must be modelled in order to catch all the eigenmodes. The influence of the non-bearing internal walls is also discussed.

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Estimation of Vibration Frequency of Structural Floors Using Combined Artificial Intelligence and Finite Element Simulation

Floor vibration due to human activities (walking, running, etc.) and operating machines generally makes inconveniences for residents. The natural vibration frequency of beams is determined as the main source and also the controlling parameter of such the phenomenon. Many studies have been conducted on determining the natural frequency of beams in recent years; however, the proposed formulations in many of them are not very practical for vibration control of tall building floors. In this paper, the finite element method (FEM), nonlinear (NL) dynamic analyses, and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques were adopted to constitute the simple frequency equations of the fixed ends and cantilever steel beams for controlling floor vibration. The input data required for training the AI based model are simulated in a NL-FE platform considering various cases of the steel moment connections. The analysis outcome of several hundred beams with different properties indicated that the calculated vibration frequency values of the fixed ends and cantilever beams were respectively 2.07 and 0.33 times larger than the frequency value of the simply supported beams with similar conditions. To this, the implemented soft computing technique was determined as an effective approach to improve the computational efficiency of the NL-FE simulations.