Performance Assessment Procedures Research Articles

Optimizing multivariate alarm systems: A study on joint false alarm rate, and joint missed alarm rate using linear programming technique

In modern complex industrial systems, multiple process variables interact with one another. The role of alarm systems in ensuring the safety of these systems is of utmost importance. Consequently, there is an increasing value placed on the assessment of the performance of multivariate alarm systems. As the dimensions of the system and the number of variables grow, designing optimal parameters for the multivariate alarm system using traditional approaches such as probability density function estimation becomes increasingly convoluted. In this paper, an approximate method is proposed for calculating two indices known as the Joint False Alarm Rate (JFAR) and Joint Missed Alarm Rate (JMAR), which are used to evaluate the performance of multivariate alarm systems. These indices are computed using the multivariate Markov chain method. The Markov chain is constructed by solving an optimal Linear Programming (LP) problem. Subsequently, joint indices are defined based on steady state estimations of a multivariate Markov chain. To validate the theoretical results obtained on the JFAR and JMAR and to demonstrate the proposed performance assessment and alarm system design procedures, numerical example and an industrial case study are provided.

Analysis of The Performance Appraisal & Bonus Payments at Real Ispat

The goal of the research project "Analysis of The Performance Appraisal & Bonus Payments at Real Ispat" is to examine the complex workings of performance assessment systems and how they affect worker satisfaction, productivity, and motivation. Acknowledging the pivotal function that incentive payments and performance reviews play in molding organizational results, this study attempts to offer a thorough examination of these mechanisms in the context of Real Ispat, a prominent participant in the steel production industry. This study's primary goal is to examine how performance reviews affect workers' motivation and output. Performance reviews are meant to provide workers input on how they perform at work, point out their areas of strength and weakness, and establish goals for the future. This study investigates the relationship between these evaluations and workers' incentive to improve performance and total output. Through gathering information from workers at different levels, the study seeks to measure how much performance reviews impact employee engagement and productivity, which in turn boosts the effectiveness and production of the company. Finding out how employees feel about and are satisfied with the performance evaluation process is the second goal. The success of the system depends heavily on how fair, transparent, and successful the assessment process is by the workforce. This survey looks at how Real Ispat employees feel about the assessment process, whether they think it's fair and impartial, and if they're happy with how often these appraisals are done. Since these impressions have a direct influence on employee morale, engagement, and retention, it is important to understand them. Evaluating the efficacy of Real Ispat's present performance evaluation system is the third goal. This entails determining whether the system of appraisals successfully identifies top performers and appropriately represents the work performance of employees. The study also looks at the impact that appraisals have on career development and how they help define reasonable and attainable performance goals. It also looks for areas where the assessment system needs to be improved in order to better fit with employee expectations and company goals. The study uses a mixed-method approach, integrating quantitative and qualitative data-gathering approaches, to accomplish these goals. Likert scale surveys are used to collect quantifiable information about worker productivity, satisfaction, motivation, and views. To obtain qualitative insights into employees' experiences and ideas for improvement, focus groups, and in-depth interviews are held. It is anticipated that the study's conclusions will give Real Ispat's management insightful information that will help them improve their processes for incentive payments and performance reviews. The organization may improve employee motivation, contentment, and productivity by implementing focused interventions after determining the present strengths and weaknesses of these systems. This study also adds to the larger body of knowledge on performance reviews by presenting best practices that other companies may use and providing actual data from the manufacturing industry. Finally, the "Analysis of The Performance Appraisal & Bonus Payments at Real Ispat" hopes to establish a standard for other businesses looking to optimize their performance assessment procedures in addition to improving Real Ispat's internal operations. This research aims to promote a more driven, productive, and contented workforce—which will eventually drive corporate success and growth—through thorough analysis and practical recommendations. Submit Research Paper Submit Research Paper Publication Procedure Publication Ethics Call for Papers Publication Topics Guidelines Disclamiar Copyright Infragmentation FAQ Terms and Conditions Digital Object Identifier Editorial Board Health Care+ Download Manuscript Template Copyright Form Sample Certificates

Seismic performance assessment and design procedure of base-isolated bridges with lead-rubber-bearing and negative stiffness springs (LRB-NS)

This study proposed a straightforward and simplified design procedure for the base-isolated highway bridges with LRB and negative stiffness springs (LRB-NS) device. Compared with the traditional LRB-isolated system, the proposed LRB-NS device contains dual-functionality: (a) alleviate the nonlinearity and damage in piers during slight-to-moderate earthquakes; (b) control the excessive bearing deformation and prevent failure during catastrophic excitations. Therefore, this device effectively improves the post-earthquake function and seismic resilience of bridge systems, and facilitate the rescue operations, since bridge can allow the passage of urgent vehicles with minimal repair. With incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) accounting for the record-to-record variability, the LRB-NS device is shown with dual-functionality as designed and better seismic performance than LRB, subjected to all of far-field (FF), near-fault no-pulse (NFNP), and near-fault pulse-type (NFPT) motions. Additionally, the influence of three kernel parameters, i.e., target period ratio sy_LRB-NS, initial spring length l, and critical deformation ucr, is also investigated in detail, concerning both the structural properties and seismic responses. The results show that increasing sy_LRB-NS and l both benefits the dual-functionality of LRB-NS, but the efficiency reduces with the increase of these design values. While greater ucr significantly reduces column nonlinearity, the bearing deformation is increased as a result, and thus careful tradeoff should be made during practical design.

Evaluation of rapid seismic safety assessment methods on a substandard reinforced concrete building stock in Istanbul

Exposure, hazard and vulnerability are the components of seismic risk, and knowledge on the vulnerability of the existing buildings is vital to properly assess their risks in seismically active regions. Unfortunately, it is not easy to assess the vulnerability of individual buildings realistically in large building stocks, particularly for regions where the buildings do not comply with the current and previous code regulations. In this study, for assessing the accuracy, applicability and cost-effectiveness of available rapid seismic safety assessment procedures for individual reinforced concrete buildings in huge building stocks, five second stage and three rapid visual screening methods are examined in a comparative manner. For this purpose, these eight methods are used to assess the seismic risks of actual service buildings of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, which had been previously evaluated by the third-level detailed code-based seismic performance assessment procedures. Furthermore, comprehensive site works have been conducted to compute the average time required for collecting data on each parameter necessary to use the investigated rapid assessment methods. Finally, the most cost and time-effective, and highly accurate rapid assessment method among the examined ones is selected to be applied to a vast amount of structures in Istanbul to prioritize them in terms of their seismic risks and plan the large volume mitigation interventions through a realistic and efficient approach.

The New Professionalism Character in Education: Framing the Management Issue

Professional character development necessitates a variety of outcome-based evaluation strategies. This article suggests modifying the concept and substance of the lecturer evaluation system to improve professional lecturer characteristics. Qualitative research using the grounded approach, technological data mining, and experience Data analysis on MPI professional practice at IAIN Lhokseumawe utilizing analytic research. The study's research boundaries represent instructors' professional competency in the aims of the Tri Dharma of higher education. The results of the study revealed that the new subject offered by the MPI IAIN Lhokseumawe. To begin, lessons learned about professional traits based on religious beliefs and job evaluations have implications for classroom instruction, research, and community outreach. Second, the identification of empirical indicators of professionalism outcome attainment is identified by performance assessment reports and procedures for building a culture of professionalism that is regarded as ideal for formalization through a reward and punishment system. Third, professional growth in higher education is accomplished by strategic evaluative personal skills, substantial education, institutional training, job autonomy, and adherence to an ethical code. When the principle of professionalism is studied, the practical implication will be the establishment of a global management professional who will contribute qualitatively to the demands of the industrial world and raise the growth of the global economy as a whole.

Assessing the potential implementation of earthquake early warning for schools in the Patras region, Greece

Earthquake early warning (EEW) is currently deemed a credible approach to seismic resilience enhancement in modern societies, especially if part of a more holistic earthquake mitigation strategy involving other risk reduction tools such as structural upgrading/retrofit. Yet, there remains a strong need to 1) assess the feasibility of EEW in various seismotectonic contexts, considering specific target applications/end users; and 2) develop next-generation decision-support systems relying on interpretable probabilistic impact-based estimates toward more risk-informed decision-making on EEW installation/alert triggering. These challenges are addressed in this paper, which showcases a series of recent significant EEW contributions by the authors. First, we present the results of a state-of-the-art feasibility study for EEW in schools performed across the Patras region of Greece, attempting to spatially combine traditional seismologically-driven EEW decision criteria (i.e., warning time) with proxy risk-oriented measures for earthquake impact (i.e., building fragility and the number of exposed school students). These results show that, under certain conditions, EEW could be effective for the schools in the considered case-study region. We then demonstrate an advanced end-user-centred approach for improved risk-informed decision-making on triggering EEW alerts. The proposed methodology integrates earthquake-engineering-related seismic performance assessment procedures and metrics with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) within an end-to-end probabilistic framework. The performance-based earthquake engineering component of such a framework facilitates the computation of various damage/loss estimates (e.g., repair cost, downtime, and casualties) by combining target-structure-specific models of seismic response, fragility, and vulnerability with real-time ground-shaking estimates. Additionally, the incorporated MCDM methodology enables explicit consideration of end-user preferences (importance) towards the estimated consequences in the context of alert issuance. The developed approach is demonstrated using an archetype school building for the case-study region, for which we specifically investigate the optimal decision (i.e., “trigger” or “don't trigger” an EEW alert) across a range of ground-motion intensity measures. We find that the best action for a given level of ground shaking can vary as a function of stakeholder preferences.

Impact resistance of BIPV systems: New testing procedure for performance assessment of multifunctional products

AbstractBuilding integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is progressively achieving an advanced level of technical maturity and considerable market penetration. In the last kilometre for considerable market implementation, major challenges are today mostly related to improving cost‐effectiveness and product reliability. BIPV multifunctional products are still framed in complex and sometimes unclear qualification processes, in the grey area between electrotechnical and construction sectors, impacting commercialization and users' confidence. The EN 50583 part 1 and part 2 standards today represent the main regulatory framework in Europe for BIPV. However, acts in force for product certification, in the construction and electrical sectors, in most national and local contexts are not yet harmonized for BIPV and imply wide margins of interpretation. The product's qualification in the EU is therefore based on electrical standards for photovoltaics modules or, on the other hand, on standards for construction products. To overcome some of these barriers and challenges, the authors propose a newly developed procedure for testing the impact resistance of BIPV products, introducing a performance‐based approach with the goal of combining building and electrical‐related limit states and responding to the need for a harmonized assessment to ensure the product's safety in use. The methodology and preliminary findings resulting from the application of real test cases, taking also into account the effect of temperature, are presented and analysed. As a result, it is envisaged that the implementation will help operators and prospective normative upgrades, ensuring more outstanding product quality for BIPV's market and driving towards a drop in life cycle costs.

Probabilistic seismic performance assessment of offshore jacket structures as a basis for engineering decision-making

Jacket structures play an ever-increasing role in meeting the world’s burgeoning energy demand by providing support structure for exploiting offshore wind energy and oil and gas resources. Many of these structures are past their design lifetimes, and thus may have suffered significant degradation, highlighting the importance of investigating their earthquake response in seismically active regions. This study investigates the seismic performance of a typical offshore jacket platform, denoted as baseline structure, as well as four versions with two longer (25% and 50% larger) and two shorter (25% and 50% smaller) natural vibration periods accounting for two levels of degradation and retrofit effects on structural performance. For each case, eleven ensembles of ground motions compatible with the site’s seismic hazard are selected using the generalized conditional intensity measure methodology. The loading uncertainty is incorporated in the performance assessment procedure via probabilistic seismic demand analysis and the demand hazard is quantified. The results provide valuable information regarding reliability of these structures both at design stage and during service life, which can aid decision-making around rehabilitation of older platforms, the suitability of reusing obsolete platforms beyond service lifetime, and risk-based design of new platforms.

Assessment of Performance Indicators of a Large-Span Reinforced Concrete Arch Bridge in a Multi-Hazard Environment

Assessment of a single bridge and management system for all bridges in the network is still a major challenge, although much research has been carried out and implemented in existing networks over the last four decades. This paper presents a case study of a long-span arch bridge, the Maslenica Motorway Bridge, located in a multi-hazard maritime environment. Although special attention was paid to durability during design, the bridge required repair after 20 years of operation. The analysis includes an overview of the design project, structural health monitoring during construction and operation, numerous laboratory and in-situ testing, numerical analysis of structural capacity and remaining service life, and meteorological monitoring of the bridge site. A new approach to bridge assessment is presented that includes not only a deterioration index, but five groups of key performance indicators: (1) safety, reliability, and security; (2) availability and maintainability; (3) costs; (4) the environment; and (5) health and politics. Incorporating all available data and evaluating various aspects of bridge performance provides greater insight into the condition of the bridge, not only at the structure level but also at the network level. The method is applied to the reinforced concrete arch bridge in a harsh maritime environment and evaluation is provided based on the comprehensive data analysis. The key performance assessment procedure and lessons learned from this case study can be applied to a wide range of structures.

Seismic Performance Assessment of Deteriorated Two-Span Reinforced Concrete Bridges

This paper presents a nonlinear analysis procedure for the seismic performance assessment of deteriorated reinforced concrete bridges using a modified damage index. A finite-element analysis program, RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology), is used to analyze deteriorated two-span simply supported reinforced concrete bridges. The new nonlinear material models for deteriorated reinforced concrete behaviors were proposed, considering corrosion effects as shown in a reduction in reinforcement section and bond strength. A modified damage index aims to quantify the seismic performance level in deteriorated reinforced concrete bridges. Several parameters of two-span simply supported deteriorated reinforced concrete bridge have been studied to determine the seismic performance levels. The newly developed analytical method for assessing the seismic performance of deteriorated reinforced concrete bridges is verified by comparison with the experimental and analytical parameter results.

Evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of fmea analysis (assembly of aircraft tail as-semblies at PJSC VASO)

The problems of improving the quality of technological processes in domestic enterprises due to their high relevance are reflected in numerous publications of both theoretical and practical nature. However, the performance assessment procedures in the standards are schematically not properly spelled out. This makes it difficult in practice to choose evaluation mechanisms and methods. The priority mechanism of improvement of the enterprise's activity in the field of quality is measurement of efficiency and efficiency of the current quality management system. In our opinion, any activity aimed at improving quality should be economically justified at the stage of its planning. The article proposes a mechanism for assessing the cost-effectiveness of using one of the tools of quality management – analysis of the types, consequences and causes of potential consequences of the industrial production process. The purpose of this analysis is to ensure that all process quality requirements with increased risk are met by developing corrective measures to eliminate the occurrence of probable failures. The article provides an example of such a process-specific analysis. The presented mechanism for assessing the economic efficiency of QMS is based on the real financial performance of the enterprise and can be used at domestic industrial enterprises to measure the costs and results of investments in product (work, services) quality management.

How to Assess Different Algorithms Using Intuitionistic Fuzzy Logic

Intuitionistic fuzzy logic is the main tool in the recently developed step-wise “cross-evaluation” procedure that aims at the assessment of different optimization algorithms. In this investigation, the procedure previously applied to compare the effectiveness of two or three algorithms has been significantly upgraded to evaluate the performance of a set of four algorithms. For the first time, the procedure applied here has been tested in the evaluation of the effectiveness of genetic algorithms (GAs), which are proven as very promising and successful optimization techniques for solving hard non-linear optimization tasks. As a case study exemplified with the parameter identification of a S. cerevisiae fed-batch fermentation process model, the cross-evaluation procedure has been executed to compare four different types of GAs, and more specifically, multi-population genetic algorithms (MGAs), which differ in the order of application of the three genetic operators: Selection, crossover and mutation. The results obtained from the implementation of the upgraded intuitionistic fuzzy logic-based procedure for MGA performance assessment have been analyzed, and the standard MGA has been outlined as the fastest and most reliable one among the four investigated algorithms.

A Two-Phase Approach using Mask R-CNN and 3D U-Net for High-Accuracy Automatic Segmentation of Pancreas in CT Imaging

Background and objectiveThe size, shape, and position of the pancreas are affected by the patient characteristics such as age, sex, adiposity. Owing to more complex anatomical structures (size, shape, and position) of the pancreas, specialists have some difficulties in the analysis of pancreatic diseases (diabetes, pancreatic cancer, pancreatitis). Therefore, the treatment of the disease requires enormous time and depends on the experience of specialists. In order to decrease the rate of pancreatic disease deaths and to assist the specialist in the analysis of pancreatic diseases, automatic pancreas segmentation techniques have been actively developed in the research article for many years. MethodsAlthough the rapid growth of deep learning and proving satisfactory performance in many medical image processing and computer vision applications, the maximum Dice Similarity Coefficients (DSC) value of these techniques related to automatic pancreas segmentation is only around 85% due to complex structure of the pancreas and other factors. Contrary to previous techniques which are required significantly higher computational power and memory, this paper suggests a novel two-phase approach for high-accuracy automatic pancreas segmentation in computed tomography (CT) imaging. The proposed approach consists of two phases; (1) Pancreas Localization, where the rough pancreas position is detected on the 2D CT slice by adopting Mask R-CNN model, (2) Pancreas Segmentation, where the segmented pancreas region is produced by refining the candidate pancreas region with 3D U-Net on the 2D sub-CT slices generated in the first phase. Both qualitative and quantitative assessments of the proposed approach are performed on the NIH data set. ResultsIn order to evaluate the achievement of the recommended approach, a total of 16 different automatic pancreas segmentation techniques reported in the literature are compared by utilizing performance assessment procedures which are Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC), Jaccard Index (JI), Precision (PRE), Recall (REC), Pixel Accuracy (ACC), Specificity (SPE), Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) and Area under ROC curve (AUC). The average values of DSC, JI, REC and ACC are computed as 86.15%, 75.93%, 86.27%, 86.27% and 99.95% respectively, which are the best values among well-established studies for automatic pancreas segmentation. ConclusionIt is demonstrated with qualitative and quantitative results that our suggested two-phase approach creates more favorable results than other existing approaches.

Tactical performance in soccer: The importance of choosing and properly applying tactical assessment tools

BACKGROUND: Several tactical assessment tools have been proposed to evaluate players’ tactical performance in more representative contexts. AIM: Investigate the associations between the results from different tactical assessment tools, TSAP and FUT-SAT, in youth soccer players. METHOD: Twenty-seven male U-11 soccer players participated in the study (mean age = 11.02 ± 0.78 years). The players' technical-tactical performance was analyzed using the Team Sports Performance Assessment Procedure - TSAP. The players' tactical performance and behavior were assessed using the Football Tactical Assessment System - FUT-SAT. Pearson's correlation test was used to analyze the association between the performance indexes obtained through both assessment tools. RESULTS: With the results obtained, it was possible to verify that both assessment tools' performance indexes did not present a significant correlation. CONCLUSION: Through these results, it is possible to conclude that it is extremely necessary for the correct choice of the assessment tools to be used, considering their characteristics and limitations, as well as their relation with tactical content to be emphasized during the learning process.

Residential Refrigerator Performance Based on Microbial Indicators of Ground Beef Preservation Assessed Using Predictive Microbiology Tools

The aim of this study was to develop a refrigerator performance assessment procedure based on the temperature (2 × 106 values) of ground beef stored in its bottom drawer set to Fresh Meat (0 °C). Effects analyzed were ambient temperature (LT, 21.1 °C/HT, 32.2 °C), food load (LL, 22.5 kg/HL, 39.0 kg), door openings, and refrigerator compressor mode (SS, single speed/VS, variable speed). Published predictive microbiology models for exponential growth and ground beef temperature (48-h tests) were used to define absolute (API) and relative preservation indicators (RPI). For VS mode, API (log CFU/g) ranged from 1.7 (LT/LL) to 3.1 (HT/HL) for Listeria monocytogenes and 1.6 to 2.5 for Pseudomonas putida. Ground beef temperature reductions with minimum freezing risk yielded significantly lower API values indicating the need for refrigerator settings below 5 °C. Probabilistic analysis considering the model and temperature measurement variability confirmed this need. At 2 °C as recommended for ground beef storage, API2°C would be 1.1 (L. monocytogenes) and 1.4 logCFU/g (P. putida). RPI defined as the ratio of experimental API over API2°C yielded values > 1 confirming that a refrigerator control logic must consider preservation in addition to energy use compliance. In this study, SS outperformed energy-efficient VS compressors; however, compressor optimization considering energy use and food preservation would favor the latter. In conclusion, API and RPI values were effective tools to assess the microbial food preservation performance of a refrigerator and its use could be extended to analyze any segment of the refrigerated food distribution chain. Transforming time-temperature data into microbial performance indicators is practical and cost-effective.

Variance‐based sensitivity analyses and uncertainty quantification for FEMA P‐58 consequence predictions

AbstractEarthquake loss assessment procedures for individual buildings can be a useful tool for various stakeholders, including building owners, insurers, and lenders. However, it is often not possible to provide complete information for the required inputs to these procedures because there is substantial cost and effort associated with gathering necessary data. It is therefore important to understand how different inputs to these procedures (building information/ground shaking intensity) impact the loss predictions. This can be done via sensitivity analyses. We conduct variance‐based sensitivity analyses for the FEMA P‐58 methodology, a building‐specific seismic performance assessment procedure that is making its way into seismic design and risk analysis practice. We determine how variations in different input variables of the methodology affect predictions of building loss ratio and reoccupancy time, and benchmark calculated sensitivities using the HAZUS earthquake loss estimation methodology . We also quantify additional uncertainty in consequence predictions caused by uncertainty in input variables. We use an example site in downtown Los Angeles and consider a 7‐story and a 14‐story building. Of the six inputs considered in the analyses, building loss ratio predictions are most sensitive to shaking intensity and building age, while reoccupancy time predictions are most sensitive to shaking intensity and the type of lateral system/building period. The largest additional uncertainties in building loss ratio predictions are caused by the building's lateral system or age (or both) being unknown. The results of this study provide an enhanced understanding of the interaction between inputs and consequence predictions of the P‐58 methodology.

Seismic performance of nonlinear soil-structure systems located on soft soil considering foundation uplifting and soil yielding

In most of researches on soil-structure systems, it is assumed that the foundation is bonded to the ground where no foundation uplift is allowed. Uplifting makes changes in force–displacement behavior of the soil-structure systems, which in turn alters structural demands. In this research, a set of non-dimensional parameters is considered which controls the behavior of uplifting systems. The effects of foundation uplift on response of soil-structure system are investigated parametrically through time history analysis for a wide range of systems subjected to harmonic excitation and also ground motions recorded on soft soil with predominant period. It is seen that the response of systems with more dominant soil-structure interaction effects will influenced more by foundation uplift. It is shown that the period of soil-structure systems to the predominant period of ground motion has an important rule on the response of uplifting systems. While this period ratio is greater than one, the total displacement of uplifting soil structure systems almost equals to elastic soil-structure system when uplifting is prevented but the drift of the structure as a part of soil-structure system while uplifting is permitted decreases in comparison with corresponding systems which foundation uplift is prevented. If the period ratio becomes smaller than one, systems which are allowed to uplift experience larger displacements in comparisons with corresponding case which foundation uplift is prevented. It is shown that neglecting the influence of foundation uplifting in seismic performance assessment procedure of stiff and squat structures located on soft soil is not conservative, because in this situation structures can experience larger drift due to foundation uplift in comparison with the case that uplifting is prevented while subjected to excitation with long predominant period. Also for nonlinear soil-structure systems it is shown that foundation uplifting and soil yielding can reduce the ductility of the structure as a part of soil structure system. It is observed that traditional structures with longer period of vibration which are designed based on conventional spectra will be influenced less by foundation uplifting and soil yielding.

Performance comparison of BRBFs designed using different response modification factors

This paper presents details of the numerical examination and performance comparison of steel buckling restrained braced frames (BRBFs) designed with different response modification factors, using the next-generation performance assessment approach. Archetypal BRBF designs were conducted following the US provisions and considering response factors equal to or less than the codified limit. The archetypical buildings were subjected to ground-motions acquired from the FEMA P695 Far-Field record-set and scaled to MCE and DBE intensity levels. The FEMA P-58 performance assessment procedure was used to evaluate the results. The interstory drift ratio, residual interstory drift ratio, and peak story acceleration demands were determined and converted to performance quantities by using the Performance Assessment Calculation Tool (PACT). The repair time, probabilistic distribution of repair cost, unsafe placard probabilities, and irreparable residual drift probabilities were obtained, and a comparative study of response modification factors in terms of these results was conducted. The results show that designs with higher response factors result in higher repair costs, due to the damage of drift sensitive components and high residual drifts. On the other hand, BRBFs designed with lower response factors were found to experience higher accelerations, which result in an increase in the repair cost for acceleration sensitive components. An ideal response factor is proposed herein based on the consequence measures. The study was complemented by investigating the behavior of self-centering BRBFs and comparing their performance with those of conventional BRBFs.

Failure mode classification and bearing capacity prediction for reinforced concrete columns based on ensemble machine learning algorithm

Failure mode (FM) and bearing capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) columns are key concerns in structural design and/or performance assessment procedures. The failure types, i.e., flexure, shear, or mix of the above two, will greatly affect the capacity and ductility of the structure. Meanwhile, the design methodologies for structures of different failure types will be totally different. Therefore, developing efficient and reliable methods to identify the FM and predict the corresponding capacity is of special importance for structural design/assessment management. In this paper, an intelligent approach is presented for FM classification and bearing capacity prediction of RC columns based on the ensemble machine learning techniques. The most typical ensemble learning method, adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) algorithm, is adopted for both classification and regression (prediction) problems. Totally 254 cyclic loading tests of RC columns are collected. The geometric dimensions, reinforcing details, material properties are set as the input variables, while the failure types (for classification problem) and peak capacity forces (for regression problem) are set as the output variables. The results indicate that the model generated by the AdaBoost learning algorithm has a very high accuracy for both FM classification (accuracy = 0.96) and capacity prediction (R2 = 0.98). Different learning algorithms are also compared and the results show that ensemble learning (especially AdaBoost) has better performance than single learning. In addition, the bearing capacity predicted by the AdaBoost is also compared to that by the empirical formulas provided by the design codes, which shows an obvious superior of the proposed method. In summary, the machine learning technique, especially the ensemble learning, can provide an alternate to the conventional mechanics-driven models in structural design in this big data time.

Building performance and maintenance information model based on IFC schema

The integration of operational information in building life-cycle management is a relevant topic within the facilities management domain. A previous study proposed a methodology based on Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Facility Management (FM) systems integration, underpinned by a Performance Information Model, to support the performance assessment and the maintenance management. The purpose of this paper is to extend and validate that methodology with an open standard approach. A subset of the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) schema related to performance assessment and maintenance procedures is mapped into a relational database. The database supports the integration between BIM models and facilities information systems. Case studies including healthcare buildings test the database and a new application. The results contribute to the BIM adoption in the FM domain. Also, the studied and validated IFC schema subset can be considered as a contribution to the Model View Definition for FM.